In an appearance on ABC's This Week with
George Stephanopoulos this morning Indiana Gov. Mike Pence defended the "Religious Freedom"
law which is designed to allow businesses, organizations and individuals
to discriminate against anyone in Indiana if the person discriminating declares it happens on religious grounds.
Lambda Legal explains the truth about the law. Though Gov. Pence says the law is like the one in Illinois, he fails to point out that Illinois has robust
nondiscrimination clauses in its state Human Rights Act that
specifically protect LGBT people. Indiana does not. Different from what Pence claims, this law goes past established law in Indiana, that now someone can sue
even without their religious beliefs having actually been burdened
simply by claiming that is "likely" to happen.
Even though Pence claims otherwise, SB 101 is substantially broader than the federal law. The
federal RFRA can only be invoked against government action. SB 101 goes
much further, inviting discrimination by allowing religious beliefs to
be raised as a defense in lawsuits and administrative proceedings
brought by workers, tenants and customers who have suffered
discrimination as "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or
central to, a system of religious belief."
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Groups-respond-to-Gov-Pences-attempt-to-clarify/50979.html
