Hundreds of people, some carrying signs reading “No hate in our state,” gathered on Saturday outside the Indiana Statehouse for a boisterous rally against a new state law that opponents say could sanction discrimination against gay people.
Since Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a Republican, signed the bill into law on Thursday, Indiana has been widely criticized by businesses and organizations around the US, as well as on social media with the hashtag #boycottindiana. Local officials and business groups around the state hope to stem the fallout, although consumer review service Angie’s List on Saturday said that it is suspending a planned expansion in Indianapolis because of the new law.
Pence told the Indianapolis Star on Saturday that he has been in touch with legislative leaders and expects another bill to be introduced this coming week to “clarify the intent” of the law. He declined to provide details, but said making gay and lesbian residents a protected legal class is “not on my agenda.”
The law’s supporters contend discrimination claims are overblown and insist it will keep the government from compelling people to provide services they find objectionable on religious grounds. They also maintain that courts have not allowed discrimination under similar laws covering the federal government and 19 other states.
However, Indiana Representative Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, said the state’s law goes further than those laws and opens the door to discrimination.
“This law does not openly allow discrimination, no, but what it does is create a road map, a path to discrimination,” he told the crowd at the rally. “Indiana’s version of this law is not the same as that in other states. It adds all kinds of new stuff and it moves us further down the road to discrimination.”
The measure, which takes effect in July, prohibits state laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to follow his or her religious beliefs. The definition of “person” includes religious institutions, businesses and associations.
The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month over the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Sixteen states have introduced legislation this year aimed at preventing government from infringing on people’s religious beliefs, according to the US National Conference of State Legislatures.
Angie’s List had sought an US$18.5 million incentive package from Indianapolis’ City-County Council to add 1,000 jobs over five years. However, founder and CEO Bill Oseterle said in a statement on Saturday that the expansion was on hold “until we fully understand the implications of the freedom restoration act on our employees.”
Saturday’s crowd, for which police did not have an exact estimate, chanted “Pence must go!” several times and many people held signs that read phrases such as “I’m pretty sure God doesn’t hate anyone” and “No hate in our state.”
Among those attending the rally was Jennifer Fox, a 40-year-old from Indianapolis who was joined by her wife, Erin Fox, and their two boys, ages 5 and 8, and other relatives.
Fox said they married in June last year on the first day that same-sex marriage became legal in Indiana under a federal court ruling. She believes the religious objections law is a sort of reward to Republican lawmakers and their conservative Christian constituents who strongly opposed the court ruling legalizing gay marriage in the state.
“I believe that’s where this is coming from — to find ways to push their own agenda, which is not a religious agenda; it’s aimed at a specific section of people,” Fox said.
Although many Indianapolis businesses have expressed opposition to the law and support for gays and lesbians, Fox worries her family could be turned away from a restaurant or other business and that her sons would suffer emotionally.
“I certainly would not want them to think that there’s something wrong with our family, because we’re a loving family,” she said.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican who opposed the law, said he and other city officials would be talking to many businesses and convention planners to counter the uproar the law has caused.
“I’m more concerned about making sure that everyone knows they can come in here and feel welcome,” Ballard said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema