Lambda Legal to Indiana Legislators: Reject these Bills!

(Indianapolis, IN, January 25, 2016)—Lambda Legal today called for the Indiana Senate Judiciary and Rules Committees to vote down SB 100, SB 344 and SB 66, three bills which would enshrine discrimination and deliver a devastating blow to LGBT Hoosiers. The bills are scheduled for hearings on Wednesday.

“These bills do not protect LGBT people from discrimination–instead, they intentionally legalize discrimination,” said Camilla Taylor, Counsel in the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal, “and any senator who supports them is not helping LGBT Hoosiers.

“We cannot risk further damage to the civil rights of LGBT people in Indiana,” said Taylor. “Lambda Legal cannot support any bill that excludes transgender people or that has damaging carve-outs and exemptions that target and hurt our communities. In these cynical and deceptive bills, the sheep’s clothing barely covers the wolf.

“We all know it is possible for LGBT equality and religious liberty to co-exist. To give just one example, the non-discrimination law in Indianapolis has served everyone well for nearly a decade. That is the kind of law we need and deserve in Indiana.”

Indiana Senate Bill 100 extends limited civil rights to LGBT people in employment, housing and public accommodations but also includes broad religious exemptions that give businesses and social service agencies permission to discriminate. Senate Bill 344, touted as an “alternative” to SB 100 extends civil rights only to lesbian and gay Hoosiers—excluding transgender people—and also broadens the right of businesses and social service agencies to discriminate. Finally, Senate Bill 66, a “Super RFRA” that doesn’t extend any rights to LGBT people at all, would roll back the so-called “fix” legislation hastily passed last spring, and permit even greater religious discrimination by businesses and social service agencies than the RFRA from last year that tarnished Indiana’s reputation and marked it as a state of intolerance.

Key Issues with Senate Bills 100, 344 and 66: http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20160122_6-key-problems-with-indiana-lgb...

http://www.lambdalegal.org/states-regions/indiana