Was Gov. Mike Pence missing from the announcement of the legislative fix because he was sulking, or because he'd embarrassed himself enough already defending the license to discriminate?
Indiana Republican leaders—minus Gov. Mike Pence, who was nowhere to be seen—have announced their big fix to take the license to discriminate out of their state's new religious freedom law. Basically, they plan to pass language saying that the law can't be used as a legal defense should a business happen to be sued for discrimination, but they certainly aren't going so far as to offer real discrimination protections for LGBT people:
Freedom Indiana - a statewide grass-roots group against the religious freedom bill - applauded the change as a step in the right direction but warned the fight is not over.
"Today, the harm has been lessened, but we have not reached the day when LGBT Hoosiers can be assured that they can live their lives with freedom from discrimination," said campaign manager Katie Blair. "It’s long past time to enact a comprehensive nondiscrimination law, and we must continue to work to ensure, once and for all, that the RFRA cannot be used to discriminate against or hurt anyone."
Notably, as Barbara Morrill earlier pointed out, business had
a seat at the table to help craft the legislative fix, but LGBT rights groups did not. Indiana Republicans have been forced to cover their asses a little bit and say discrimination isn't okay, but they're determined not to do anything radical like embracing equality. And right up through the announcement of the fix, they continued insisting that the problem was
perception, not reality—not a stance that instills much faith in their understanding of the issues here.
8:06 AM PT:
Angie’s List not happy with #IndianaRFRA fix. Says it doesn’t go far enough. Need to repeal and provide comprehensive LGBT protections
— @aterkel
Angie's List was one of the first Indiana-based companies to come out against the hate law, saying that it was
halting plans for a major expansion as a result.
