Things are falling apart for Indiana's chief bigot, state House Speaker Brian Bosma. He's the guy who's trying to ram an extreme anti-marriage equality constitutional amendment through the state legislature. When his fellow Republicans in the judiciary committee
rebelled against the amendment, Bosma yanked it from that committee and
put it in a friendlier one. He figured it would sail through there, and it pretty much did. But then he hit the
wall of opposition from fellow Republicans in the full House. With a 52-43 vote, the House removed the worst part of the amendment, a provision that would have banned civil unions and could have ended protections for straight, unmarried couples in civil unions. That's triggering a delay, meaning that even if both chambers of the General Assembly pass the revised amendment, it likely won't go before voters until 2016.
Getting this clause out of the amendment is a victory, but that doesn't mean that the fight is over, because Indiana Republican lawmakers still want to ban marriage equality.
"Obviously, this is a great night for our campaign, and we're extremely excited to have the second sentence taken out," said Megan Robertson, campaign director for Freedom Indiana, a coalition working against the amendment.
But, she added: "Getting rid of one bad sentence doesn't fix the whole bill."
Opponents of the measure acknowledge they still have a fierce uphill battle ahead of them. The odds of defeating what's left of the amendment remain long, and they still face the prospect of the Senate reinstating the ban on civil unions in a renewed effort to send the issue to voters in November.
The tide on this issue is turning, even among Republicans. But that is just going to make the bigots, like Bosma, more committed to using every means possible to fight it. That means our allies, like Freedom Indiana, will need all the help they can get to keep pushing back.
Let's give Freedom Indiana a hand in fighting against discrimination this week.
