Indiana hires PR firm to help repair damage from religious objections law flap

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Indiana Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said his committee last week added $1 million to tourism funding in the pending two-year state budget specifically for that purpose.

The IEDC has signed an initial letter of engagement with Porter Novelli to define the scope of work and develop a budget for the project, the agency said.

Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, used the IEDC announcement to renew a call to amend Indiana’s Civil Rights Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity.

“The actions announced today by the IEDC are an admission by the governor that more must be done to clean up the mess … created with RFRA,” Lanane said.

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The General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) announced Monday that the amendments signed into law on April 2 addressed its concerns and it has selected Indianapolis for its 2017 General Assembly after earlier pulling the meeting from the city.

The Indianapolis-based denomination’s general minister and president, Sharon Watkins, said “there is a newly invigorated statewide understanding that Indiana needs improved laws and ordinances protecting all people from discrimination.”

“Locating our assembly in Indianapolis, now that our concerns have been addressed, positions us more strongly as a moral voice in the movement for equal protection under the law for all,” Watkins said.