It's official: the growing opposition to the Indiana religious discrimination law is now bipartisan in nature.
Craig Dunn, the chairman of the Republican Party of Howard County, Indiana (Howard County is in the central/north central part of Indiana; Kokomo is the county seat and largest incorporated municipality in the county), wrote this editorial, which was published by the Howey Politics Indiana website, opposing the religious discrimination law that was passed by the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Dunn also went as far as to call for "immediate and full protections" for "gay, lesbian, and transgendered people" in Indiana.
I'll quote the key parts of Dunn's editorial here:
...As far as the legislation goes, this bill was not needed. It was a bill in search of a problem that just did not exist. Section Two of the Indiana State Constitution reads: “All people shall be secured in the natural right to worship ALMIGHTY GOD, according to the dictates of their own consciences.” Further Section Three reads: “No law shall, in any case whatever, control the free exercise and enjoyment of religious opinions or interfere with the rights of conscience.”
[...]
Why then, would Republicans risk the wrath of a significant segment of the public to craft a bill that says substantially the same thing as the State Constitution? And, pray tell, exactly what religious freedoms have been trampled upon that needed to be restored? You see, that is the precise problem with this bill and exactly why the religious right loves it and much of the public hates it. Senate Bill 101 is just about the most befuddled, inexact and non-descriptive piece of legislation ever to be passed in Indiana.
[...]
This mess, and it is the messiest of messes, will only be cleaned up by granting immediate and full protections to gay, lesbian and transgendered people. This means civil unions and all that goes with it. In addition, Republicans in the legislature will need to take actions that prevent any further attempt to abrogate the right of any human to pursue their own brand of Hoosier happiness as is guaranteed by the First Section of the Indiana Constitution. Any action short of this will be the equivalent of taking aspirin for a brain tumor.
That is the kind of editorial that I would have expected from a Democratic state legislator, party official, or activist, not from a Republican Party official.
Mike Pence has made himself the biggest dumbass in the history of Indiana politics by signing a religious discrimination bill into law and then dodging the media's questions about the law and the role he played in enacting the law. Now, there's at least one person in his own party who believes that discriminating against LGBT people is a ridiculous idea. While I strongly disagree with Craig Dunn on most issues, one issue where I do agree with him is that LGBT rights should be legally protected.