Joe.My.God. LGBT News
As an anti-gay continent led by the Indiana Pastors Alliance held a prayer vigil against LGBT rights at the Indiana Statehouse, state Senate Republicans today introduced an alleged LGBT rights bill that has LGBT groups alarmed. First the report from the Indianapolis Star:
Indiana Senate Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to state civil rights law, with non-discrimination protections in housing, employment and public accommodations. The bill would also provide protections for churches and religious-affiliated institutions such as private universities. It also gives exceptions in public accommodations for wedding services businesses with fewer than four employees. A $1,000 penalty would be allowed for “frivolous” discrimination complaints. The bill would also require transgender people to live as their preferred gender for a year or receive a medical opinion before filing a discrimination complaint.The addition to the state civil rights law would trump any local nondiscrimination ordinances.
Lambda Legal reacts via press release:
This afternoon a bill to amend the civil rights code was introduced in the Indiana Senate—after reviewing the bill Jennifer Pizer, Law and Policy Project Director at Lambda Legal issued the following statement: “This bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This doesn’t protect LGBT people—it is a road map for discrimination against LGBT people. “It aims to guarantee the right of some medical, social services and other institutions to discriminate against married same-sex couples, and to do so with taxpayer dollars. It aims to write separate, lesser protections for LGBT people into state law. It aims to make LGBT people the vehicle for lessening damages for workplace discrimination for everyone except veterans—and it overrides local nondiscrimination policies that provide more protection for LGBT people. “The drafters are explicit in the preamble that their goal is to resolve conflicts in favor of religious exemptions and against enforceability of the protections for LGBT people.”
Lambda Legal has also sent a letter to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. An excerpt:
“We wish to be clear: half-measures, such as amending Indiana’s employment discrimination law, but not its laws banning similar discrimination by service providers such as hotels or restaurants, or omitting protection from discrimination for transgender people, would be completely unacceptable to us, to LGBT Hoosiers and to others around the country anxious to see, after last year’s display of intolerance, whether Indiana is committed to being a welcoming state for residents, employees, convention-goers, and other visitors alike. LGBT Hoosiers have a right to expect protection from discrimination by the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity to Indiana’s existing civil rights laws. It’s as simple as that.”