Hundreds of LGBT Hoosiers and their alliesamong them members of Chicago's Gay Liberation Networkmarched through downtown Indianapolis to Lucas Oil Stadium, where the NCAA Final Four was being played, on April 4. The rally was intended to call attention to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ( RFRA ) and demanded that legislators implement statewide protections for LGBT residents.
Gov. Mike Pence and the Indiana General Assembly, on April 2, passed a legislative "fix" on RFRA that was intended to assuage fears that the controversial legislation was a license to discriminate. But many rights-advocates say that the new actions don't go far enough.
The new language states that service providers are not able to refuse service because of a customer's sexual orientation or gender identity, among other categories, nor can that be the basis of a legal defense for such a refusal. Another change entailed removing a provision of the RFRA that said the law supersedesand essentially nullifieslocal anti-LGBT discrimination protections. Those local protections, available in Indianapolis and only a handful of other Indiana cities, now remain unaffected.
The April 2 fix, according to march organizer Dominic Dorsey, was just "putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. … If you truly do mean that RFRA was not intended to discriminate against anybody, than do the right thing and grant equal protections under civil rights for everyone" across the state.
LGBT Hoosiers and other rights-activists were not the only opponents of RFRA. Numerous business interests throughout the state said the bill impaired long-standing efforts to attract talent, commerce and tourists. Indy Star reported April 3, for example, that officials from Visit Indy, Indianapolis' tourist and convention bureau, have mounted an aggressive campaign to win back both conventions and tourists lost because of RFRA.
The bureau's website now opens to a picture of the city accompanied by a heart, with the slogan "Indy Welcomes All"; that same slogan and logo was being used by marchers at the April 4 rally. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard opposed RFRA and said the fix was still insufficient without specific protections in place.
Phil Ray, general manager of the JW Marriott, Indianapolis' largest hotel, told Indy Star that his staff is keeping in touch with prospective convention groups who are nervous about the legislation.
"They've been patient to try to work with us. We'll update them and ... reassure them they can continue to bring their business to Indy. Obviously they are very nervous and very concerned," Ray said.
Dorsey was not sure whether a straightforward boycott of Indiana business was the answer, but said it had obviously gotten Pence's attention.
"It's a slippery slope," he noted. "Boycotting Indiana means you're boycotting us as well. It impacts our economy to a great extent, but we can't stop letting Pence know what we think, and if the only way we can get his attention is through economic violence? That's an unfortunate measure but apparently it's an effective one. … At the end of the day, it's bigger than RFRA, and until we have statewide protections for [the LGBT community], we haven't come far enough."
Gay Liberation Network's video of the rally is at www.facebook.com/video.php .