What Killed Indiana's GLBT Protections Measure? Election Year Politics

Republican leaders in the Indiana Senate quashed a bill that purported to protect gay and bisexual Hoosiers from discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations on Tuesday, after Senate Majority Leader David Long (R-Fort Wayne) determined that there was not enough support for an LGBT-related bill among his caucus in the upper chamber.

The bill, SB 344, ran into steep headwinds after religious conservatives essentially declared war on any legislation that would codify protections for people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Social conservatives claim that extending any sort of protection to LGBT people, even with religious exemptions, constitutes a grave violation of their First Amendment rights.

By killing the bill without a floor debate or a roll-call vote, Long provides cover for much of his fellow party members in a year when half of the seats in the Indiana Senate are up for election and when Gov. Mike Pence (R) could potentially face a tough re-election fight, the Indianapolis Star reports. Social conservatives had vowed to primary any Republican legislators who supported a gay rights bill.

Meanwhile, Pence did not want to have to stake out a position on an LGBT rights bill, particularly less than a year after coming under fire for signing the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law last year, and, later, being attacked by conservatives for offering a "fix" to the RFRA law. The political situation in the state placed the governor in a quandary: supporting an LGBT nondiscrimination bill could have alienated conservatives he'll need in this year's general election, while opposing one would put him at odds with a majority of Hoosiers, according to recent public opinion polls.

According to the Star, the biggest stumbling block the bill encountered was objections by Indiana Senate Republicans over transgender rights. Although SB 344 did not contain any protections whatsoever for transgender individuals, Democrats refused to support any bill that was not trans-inclusive. Meanwhile, several Republicans objected to the idea of an LGBT nondiscrimination bill in principle. Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) told the Star that Democratic leadership had offered to support the bill if it offered very limited protections for transgender people, but Republicans rejected that compromise.

But even had the bill moved forward without transgender protections, LGBT advocates and allies decried the bill as a Trojan Horse of sorts, as the bill was riddled with various carve-outs and exemptions to win the support of conservative lawmakers. Supporters of equality argued that the exemptions were so broad that they undercut the very protections that the bill purported to offer.

Jane Henegar, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana, lamented the failure of Indiana Senate lawmakers to allow a nondiscrimination bill to move forward.

"It is extremely disappointing that lawmakers did not allow a vote to occur on the Senate floor today regarding an update to our civil rights law, an update that could have finally put to rest the question of equal protection for LGBT people in Indiana," Henegar said in a statement. "Lawmakers left this crucial issue unanswered despite our tireless efforts to help fix the deeply flawed legislation, and despite strong support across the state from faith leaders, business leaders and public officials interested in moving Indiana forward."

In response to a follow-up question, Allison Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the ACLU, said the organization had thought there were too many carve-outs in SB 344 as written, and also objected to the exclusion of transgender people, but had hoped to use the amendment process to craft a better bill.

"We'll continue to work to get a good nondiscrimination bill passed there," Steinberg said.
Senate committee approves Trojan Horse "nondiscrimination" bill

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign, which called SB 344 "deeply flawed," issued its own statement blasting the bill's far-reaching exemptions and the political considerations that took precedence over good legislation. HRC also vowed to continue fighting for a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill.

"Indiana lawmakers must move forward legislation this session that would truly safeguard LGBT Hoosiers and visitors from discrimination," JoDee Winterhof, HRC's senior vice president for policy and political affairs, said. "These lawmakers cannot ignore their responsibility to move Indiana beyond the continuing damage they inflicted on the state last year with an anti-LGBT RFRA. Fully inclusive LGBT nondiscrimination protections are what the state desperately needs and what LGBT Hoosiers and visitors deserve."