Dear Editors,
Lawmakers will present a number of bills intended to protect those with religious beliefs. Challengers of this movement, however, say the bills are a vehicle for discrimination.
Sen. Scott Schneider plans to present a bill he thinks will improve Indiana's "religious liberty framework." This would let small businesses – like bakeries, caterers, florists, etc. – deny services to homosexual couples according to the owner's religious beliefs.
Senate Bill 127, introduced by Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, would require any state or local government contract with a religious corporation or educational association allow those employers to show preference to people of a certain religion in hiring. The bill would also allow those employers to call for all employees to abide by the organization’s religious codes of belief.
A proposal supporters claim will protect people with strong religious views but that opponents say would legalize discrimination against gays and others is causing commotion in Indiana legislation. It would also allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples.
The exact wording of the bill is still being modified. One version says the state's actions "shall not burden a person's right to exercise of religion," unless the government can demonstrate the burden is "essential to further a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering" that interest.
How shall we decide what is and what is not a burden? The issue of determining what shade of gray these burdens fall under can be avoided entirely with the discarding of this ambiguous legislation.
It also would allow a person exercising his or her religion to use the law as a defense in court regardless of whether the state is a party to the proceeding. Religion is definitely a component to individuals’ actions; however, it should not be abused as an alibi for unjust behavior.
State Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, says the Indiana bill will create a problem where there is not one and will simply distract legislators from focusing on significant topics, such as schools and wages.
Some major businesses have announced they will protest the new legislation by either removing or drastically reducing spending in Indiana. A couple of these businesses include Angie’s List and Salesforce, of which the Center for American Progress is a client.
Angie’s List’s announcement alone cost the state 1,000 jobs. The NCAA and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination have proposed that they may need to rethink future economic activity and events in Indiana as a result of the discriminatory bill.
Publicly available estimates of the economic impact of lost or at-risk business activity predict that over the next six years, the economy of Indiana could lose $256.4 million or more.
Current loss from some organizations include: Angie’s List - $40 million, AFSCME conference - $500,000.
The estimates of loss predicted from various organizations include: Big Ten football, 2016–2021: $96 million ($16 million per year), Big Ten men’s basketball, 2020: $8 million, Big Ten women’s basketball, 2017–2021: $10 million ($2 million per year), NCAA Men’s Final Four, 2021: $71 million, NCAA Women’s Final Four, 2016: $25 million, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 2017 General Assembly: $5.9 million.
Discrimination is a terrible practice under any circumstances. The detriment to Indiana business, as well as the rest of the U.S. economy, should serve as another wakeup call for supporters of this “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” There is no wonder why a great majority of Fortune 500 companies ban LGBT discrimination. Congress and state legislators must make it so that all workers and customers are treated equally by providing explicit protections from discrimination.
