Tag: Indiana

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CNN’s Chris Cuomo Takes Down Indiana Hater – “Own Who And What You Are”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo does not suffer fools lightly. And he proved that once again this morning.

If you come on his show, you better know your stuff. Clearly, Ryan McCann was not prepared to be confronted with facts.

From Mediate:

New Day host Chris Cuomo, who’s become a one-man wrecking ball over Indiana’s just-passed “religious liberty” bill, confronted Ryan McCann, Policy Director of the Indiana Family Institute, Tuesday morning for his third contentious interview on the subject in the past 24 hours.

McCann argued that the bill only ensures protections for religious minorities, something Cuomo said was belied by the presence of anti-LGBT figures at the bill’s signing. McCann said that the statements Cuomo was alluding to had been passed around the internet “by the left.”

Things got personal when Cuomo demanded McCann account for the real motives behind the bill, which was supported by “groups like yours, that are Christian-based, with an animus toward the LGBT community. Own who and what you are. There’s nothing wrong with that you’re allowed to believe it but you’re not about native americans or people who want liver transplants, right?”

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Indiana: Gov. Mike Pence Blames “Sloppy Reporting” on State’s “Perception Problem”

Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana

At a Tuesday morning press conference, Gov. Pence announced plans to amend the law before the end of the week. He added the changes will clearly state that RFRA is about “religious liberty, not discrimination,” adding the the law does not give anyone the right to turn away customers on religious grounds.

The odd take-away from the press conference was that the Governor plans to “fix” a law that he claims is not broken.

Blaming the national media for “sloppy reporting,” a beleagured Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana admitted the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” has caused a huge headache for the state and a terrible “perception problem.”

Pence said he concluded that it is necessary to move legislation to amend the law to make it clear that it does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone.

“This law does not give anyone the right to discriminate. This law does not give anyone the right to deny services,” said the governor.

“I don’t support discrimination against gays and lesbians or anyone else. I abhor discrimination.”

That being said, the governor indicated that adding sexual orientation to the state’s civil rights laws was not on the table right now.

Pence said he will work with the Indiana legislature this week to make the changes he is seeking to the RFRA law.

“We will fix this and we will move forward,” he said.

(source)

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Megyn Kelly Gives Anti-Gay Tony Perkins A Soapbox To Support Indiana’s “License To Discriminate”

Lots of panels discussing the Indiana debacle going on yesterday.

I have recently been impressed with Megyn Kelly for being fair-minded in a few interviews lately. But here she digresses to clearly biased in her position on the SB101 issue. Over and over she tells Mark Hannah to let anti-gay Tony Perkins finish, but when Perkins continually interrupts Hannah, she says nothing.

And then when she chimes in to reiterate that Indiana’s law is “the same” as other state’s RFRA laws… Not sure why I’m surprised.

Of course, Tony has to bring up the ever famous “ham sandwich” scenario in a jewish deli… Tired.

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Indianapolis Star To State Legislature: “Fix This Now”

Excerpts from the Indy Star’s op-ed:

The consequences will only get worse if our state leaders delay in fixing the deep mess created.

Half steps will not be enough. Half steps will not undo the damage.

Only bold action — action that sends an unmistakable message to the world that our state will not tolerate discrimination against any of its citizens — will be enough to reverse the damage.

Gov. Mike Pence and the General Assembly need to enact a state law to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Those protections and RFRA can co-exist. They do elsewhere.

[snip]

We urge Gov. Pence and lawmakers to stop clinging to arguments about whether RFRA really does what critics fear; to stop clinging to ideology or personal preferences; to focus instead on fixing this.

Governor, Indiana is in a state of crisis. It is worse than you seem to understand.

The op-ed points to the fact that Indianapolis passed LGBT protections nearly a decade ago. To no negative results.

And the state could base passage of LGBT protections on that ordinance and get it done before the legislative session ends.

Will the leaders of Indiana’s legislative bodies hear this call for equality?

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Indiana Lawmakers Scramble As “License To Discriminate” Debacle Continues to Spiral

I know I’ve been writing a lot about the debacle in Indiana regarding the passage of SB101 – the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

As an interested party, it’s fascinating to see how government will/will not or can/cannot react to situations like this.

I’m captivated watching this press conference today with Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long where said they are prepared to urge legislative colleagues to adapt the RFRA’s language to “clarify” the law.

That sounds good. At first.  But all indications seem to be that they aren’t really proposing any real changes to the anti-gay legislation. The word “clarify” is all they seem to come up with here.

Don’t let the 30 minute time length intimidate you. Just watch the first two minutes. Really incredible to see the two lawmakers scramble to try and get this under control.

It’s of interest to me that they pretend that they didn’t see this backlash coming. At one point, one of the two says that they never heard strong objections over the bill during it’s passage. And yet, I know voices were raised.

Perhaps they thought it would just be a couple of LGBT advocacy groups and some bloggers? Wrong.

Trust and believe they knew EXACTLY what this law was and is. They knew it was born of anti-gay animus.

Over and over they proclaim the law does not discriminate; that it’s a “mischaracterization” and a “misconception” about the law.

Asked if they would consider adding sexual orientation to the state’s protected classes, they rear back saying that would be too difficult for now.

Just… watch the video. Very interesting political theater.

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Portland Mayor Suspends City-Funded Travel To Indiana Over “License To Discriminate”

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales follows other mayors across the country in suspending city-funded travel to the state of Indiana.

“Gov. Mike Pence and the Indiana Legislature have to understand that such blatant discrimination against their own citizens cannot stand. We, as a country, have moved so far from those shameful practices of the past,” Hales said.

“It is regrettable that the great city of Indianapolis, led by its very effective mayor, Greg Ballard, is being dragged down by the reactionary efforts of the State Legislature and the governor.”

“Indiana isn’t the first state to adopt this backward, discriminatory policy, but most states have sexual-orientation language in their civil rights statutes to protect LGBT residents,” Hales said.

“Indiana doesn’t offer these same protections. All states have to realize that government-sponsored discrimination against LGBT residents in the United States of America has to stop.”

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Fox News’ Bret Baier Debunks Indiana’s “Religious Freedom” Law

When even Fox News anchors can see a law doesn’t work, you know the jig is up.

Bret Baier, appearing on Happening Now today, told host Eric Shawn that the law is NOT like the federal version, and that it will “have to be tweaked, if not changed.”

Check this transcript from the segment:

ERIC SHAWN: You know, the law was intended to protect personal religious liberties against government overreach and intrusion. So what happened?

BAIER: Well, Indiana’s law is written a little differently. It is more broad. It is different than the federal law that it’s close to, but different than, and also different than 19 other states and how the law is written. In specific terms, Indiana’s law deals with a person who can claim religious persecution but that includes corporations, for profit entities and it could also be used as a defense in a civil suit that does not involve the government. That is broader than the other laws. This is where it’s a little different in Indiana’s case. You saw governor Mike Pence try to defend the law and say it’s just like the 1993 federal law where it’s just like 19 other states, but as you look in the fine print, it’s not really, and it may be something that Indiana deals with in specifics to line up with the others.

[snip]

SHAWN: Obviously, it had good intentions. What do you think happened to make it kind of go off the rails this way?

BAIER: Well, how it was structured, Eric. And I think that, you know, there may be good intentions behind it but how it’s being interpreted is being a little bit more forward leaning than any other Religious Freedom Restoration Act on the books. What this does politically, obviously Mike Pence has been talked about as a governor thinking about a 2016 run. We don’t know if he’s going to do it or not. But that interview with Stephanopoulos over the weekend was obviously not a great back and forth in defense of this law that likely is going to have to be at least tweaked, if not changed. [emphasis added]

Further discussions about SB101 continue to circle back to the federal law with conservative Hoosier lawmakers saying their law is “exactly” like.

But as Bret Baier and many others can now attest to upon closer evaluation, there is a major difference between Indiana’s version of the law and the federal government’s version.

From Media Matters:

Indiana’s RFRA is categorically different from other “religious freedom” laws, because it includes for-profit businesses under its definition of “persons” capable of religious expression.

The Indiana law also allows private individuals and businesses to claim a religious exemption in court “regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.”

Those differences — which the ACLU has called “virtually without precedent” — expand the scope of Indiana’s RFRA and provide a legal defense for businesses and individuals who refuse service to LGBT residents.

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Connecticut: Governor Dan Malloy Bans State-Funded Travel To Indiana

First, San Francisco’s mayor issued a ban on city-funded travel to the state of Indiana over the recently passed (and highly controversial) “license to discriminate” legislation SB101.

Then, Seattle’s mayor followed suit.

Today, the governor of Connecticut has now issued his own executive order banning state-funded travel to the Hoosier state.

Malloy’s communications director, Mark Bergman, followed up with tweets pointing out that Connecticut’s religious freedom laws only pertain to religious institutions – not private organizations.

And, unlike other states Connecticut doesn’t permit discrimination on sexual orientation in any private establishment or institution.