Saturday, April 4, 2015

Pence, Bosma & Long Hoodwink the People of Indiana


First they pass a Religious Freedom Bill, which allows business to discriminate and not to provide services to people etc. The law allows businesses to use it as a defense “regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.”  This is the difference of Indiana Law over the Federal Law and those passed by other states. The Hose Democrats had offered an amendment clarifying that the religious freedom statute would prohibit discrimination by businesses. The Indiana Legislature as a whole rejected it.

Indiana does not have a law barring discrimination against the LGBT community, the same way against other classes of citizens such as racial minorities or the disabled. So a business could not serve anyone in that class. This Bill was a direct retribution by the state’s Republicans against the courts ruling of same sex marriage.

The revised legislation prohibits providers from using the law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations. It also bars discrimination based on factors that include race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or United States military service.

So now the State’s magic three pass a fix to the law but the fix is only in effect in communities that have anti-discrimination laws on the books concerning sexual orientation. So within Indiana that applies to Indy and 11 more areas.

So Memories Pizza in Walkerton, IN can still refuse to serve certain customer if the place ever re-opens. They just can’t use the law as a legal defense.

It is tine for Indiana to stop this nonsense and enact a real Freedom Bill, removing discrimination from all people no matter what.

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