In the midst of furious debate, Pence said in a statement, he prayed.
Since he signed it last week, Senate Bill 101 has come under attack as anti-gay and brought a firestorm of condemnation on the entire state. The new language – Senate Bill 50 – clarifies that the bill does not condone discrimination.
It comes after Seattle, San Francisco and the states of New York and Connecticut barred official non-essential travel to Indiana; the NCAA Tournament — worth more than $11 billion in contracts — threatened to leave Indianapolis; Wilco canceled a concert; Angie’s List called off a 1,000-job expansion; Twitter exploded with #boycottindiana and #impeachmikepence.
Stephen King only needed one tweet: “You can frost a dog turd, but it’s still a dog turd.”
One petition called for the governor to be recalled. Another called upon IU to confer him with an honorary doctorate in interpretive dance after he avoided answers to yes-no questions on television. The Indianapolis Star, the state’s largest newspaper, devoted an entire front page to its editorial board’s stance: “FIX THIS NOW.”
It was repeatedly called the most embarrassing moment in recent Indiana history.
Opponents of the original legislation pushed for sweeping non-discrimination measures that would have allowed LGBT individuals class protection. During Thursday’s committee discussions, one transgendered youth asked lawmakers for full protection for LGBT and gender non-conforming individuals. A clean start.
House Republicans and Senate leadership met somewhere in the middle.
While the result, SB 50, protects LGBT Hoosiers from discrimination by business operators and employers, it does not afford them the status of a protected class. Religious institutions and nonprofits are, however, exempt from the law entirely.
Perhaps oblivious to history in the making, schoolchildren on field trips and elderly citizens on Statehouse tours almost didn’t flinch as they walked through the sea of reporters and cameras and lobbyists.
Steve Sanders, an associate professor of law at IU, studies issues constitutional law as applied to same-sex couples.
“The whole political controversy has been worth having,” Sanders said. “It has really crystallized where the mainstream is right now for gay and lesbian rights.”
The great service that controversies like this provide, he added, is the opportunity to begin a conversation.
“Indiana has this odd way of backing into doing the right thing,” Sanders said. “It ends up doing the right thing even when it didn’t set out to do that.”
Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long called the week’s events a calamity, but said the takeaway is that “Religious and individual rights can coexist in harmony.”
Religious leaders — a very visible part of last week’s private bill signing last week — were nowhere to be seen in the Statehouse on Thursday as the clarifications to the new law were discussed. Neither was Pence.
“We can unequivocally say RFRA cannot be used to discriminate against anyone,” Brian Bosma, Republican House Speaker, said. “RFRA will not be used for that purpose. It was misinterpreted. We are sorry the misinterpretation hurt so many people.”
Olympic diving legend Greg Louganis, who is gay, spent an hour with lawmakers before the language was rolled out.
I’m sorry, Bosma recalled telling Louganis, that you perceived this to be something it wasn’t.
At a press conference announcing the new language, Bosma begged the question the nation is asking: Can the damage to Indiana’s reputation be undone?
“That’s yet to be seen,” he said.
