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Indiana unveils changes to religious freedom bill; LGBT rights groups say it’s not enough

Indiana unveils changes to religious freedom bill; LGBT rights groups say it’s not enough
Some of the hundreds of people who gathered outside the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday, March 28, 2015 to oppose the religious freedom legislation.
Some of the hundreds of people who gathered outside the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday, March 28, 2015 to oppose the religious freedom legislation. Rick Callahan, AP

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers on Thursday announced changes they plan to make to the state’s new religious freedom law aimed at quelling widespread criticism from businesses and others who have called the proposal anti-gay, but LGBT rights groups said the fix doesn’t go far enough.

The revisions, which still require approval from the full Legislature and Republican Gov. Mike Pence, come as lawmakers in Arkansas scramble to revise that state’s own religious-objections legislation amid cries that it could permit discrimination.

The Indiana amendment prohibits service providers from using the law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations.

It also bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or U.S. military service.

The measure exempts churches and affiliated schools, along with nonprofit religious organizations.

House Speaker Brian Bosma said the agreement sends a “very strong statement” that the state will not tolerate discrimination.

The law “cannot be used to discriminate against anyone,” he said.

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Bosma and Long said they have the votes needed to pass the amendment and send it to Pence. A spokeswoman for the governor said he would not comment until the revised bill arrives on his desk.

Business leaders, many of whom had opposed the law or pledged to cancel travel to the state because of it, called the amendment a good first step. Indiana still does not include the LGBT community as a protected class in its civil-rights law, but Bosma said lawmakers met with representatives of the LGBT community and said they believed the new language addressed many of their concerns.

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Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, now a senior vice president at drugmaker Eli Lilly, praised the agreement but noted that work needs to be done to repair the damage done to the state’s image.

“The healing needs to begin right now,” he said.

But Democratic leaders and national LGBT rights groups said the proposed amendment doesn’t go far enough and repeated their calls to repeal the law.

“I want to hear somebody say we made a grave mistake and we caused the state tremendous embarrassment that will take months if not years to repair,” said House Minority Leader Scott Pelath. “I want to hear one of the proponents ‘fess up, because the healing cannot begin until that happens. The solution is simple. Repeal this law.”

The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal said that while the proposal reduces the threat to LGBT Hoosiers, it fails to explicitly ensure that the RFRA won’t be used to undermine the full scope of Indiana existing non-discrimination laws.

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“The proposal also falls far short of adding non-discrimination protections for LGBT Hoosiers to the state’s civil rights laws, and future legislative sessions have an obligation to return to fix both the RFRA and this glaring hole in Indiana’s laws protecting their own citizens,” the HRC said, in a statement Thursday.

“This bill reduces the threat but is far less than this situation requires. It recognizes there are problems, but does not fix it as LGBT Hoosiers and others urgently need,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, National Director of Lambda Legal’s Law and Policy Project.

“Now that there’s broad public understanding that gay and transgender people in much of Indiana are terribly vulnerable to arbitrary discrimination by businesses, refusal of housing, and being fired just for being who they are … that unacceptable situation requires a full solution,” said Pizer, in a statement.

“we’ve provided multiple options of straightforward bill language. This is not a complicated or novel task. Many states have done it with only positive results economically and socially,” she said.

Developing story. This report will be updated.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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