Growing Hate in Indiana
On Thursday morning, America woke up to a scary new reality: Hate is growing in the heartland. Why? The Indiana legislature passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a.k.a. the “religious freedom” law, and its governor, Mike Pence, quickly signed it into law in a closed-door ceremony.
This law protects the religious freedom of people living in Indiana and while the governor said, “This bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way in Indiana, I would have vetoed it,” it does, in fact, allow people to discriminate. It allows any entity — bakery, doctor, restaurant— to deny business to someone if they feel it infringes on their religious beliefs. So if a lesbian couple walks into a bakery to order a cake for their wedding, the bakery can say no because it’s against their religious beliefs. If the child of a gay man is in day care in a Christian establishment, that child can be denied care, again, because it’s against their religious beliefs.
This is a slippery slope and actions like this remind me of Berlin in the 1930s where people’s freedoms were taken away, ironically, because of their religious beliefs. We all know how that turned out. I’m not saying we’re heading for a new Holocaust, but this bill can open a lot of ugly doors.
But fortunately people are taking a stand. Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, took immediate action when he tweeted his company would be “canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination.” The NCAA also voiced concerns about the well being of their student-athletes and employees ahead of the Final Four set to take place in Indianapolis next week. And Hillary Clinton added in a tweet, “Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn’t discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT.”
Even Indianapolis’ republican mayor Greg Ballard spoke out against the bill saying it sends the “wrong signal” for the city and state. “We are a diverse city,” he said, “and I want everyone who visits and lives in Indy to feel comfortable here.
And ahead of the governor signing the bill, the organizers of gamer convention Gen Con, one of the largest gaming conventions in the country, threatened to move the convention from Indianapolis, where it has been held since 2003, due to the bill’s discriminatory consequences.
“Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state’s economy,” Gen Con CEO and owner Adrian Swartout wrote in a letter to the governor, “and will factor into our decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years.” If Gen Con pulls up stakes and heads out, it will take its 56,000 annual attendees and $50 million in revenue it adds to the local economy. This is presumably a drop in the bucket of the billions the state could potentially lose.
Signing this law goes beyond just denying protection to LGBT people and into hurting many others. An abuser could claim due to religious beliefs that they have the right to discipline a spouse or child as they see fit that certain domestic violence laws don’t apply. Or a police officer could say he can’t protect a mosque or synagogue because it goes against his religious beliefs. A landlord can cite his religion as a reason to deny renting to a Muslim. These are just the tip of the iceberg of this slippery slope of discrimination as outlined in a report by the Human Rights Campaign.
I think the New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz sums it up perfectly, “In a history-making decision, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana has signed into law a bill that officially recognizes stupidity as a religion.”
