When the calls for a boycott began last week after Gov. Mike Pence signed Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), I held my fire. Numerous other states and the federal government have RFRAs, so why should we suddenly hold Indiana to a different standard?
After reading analyses and watching an interview with Gov. Pence himself, it has become evident that Indiana’s RFRA law is different. Unlike most such laws, it specifically applies to private lawsuits, and clearly includes businesses, making Hobby Lobby style verdicts easier. It also lacks a clause preventing it from justifying discrimination, which is included in the Texas RFRA signed by then Gov. George W. Bush.
It’s clearly time to boycott Indiana. The question now is “How long?” Or, more specifically, “What do we want for lifting the boycott?”
Pence and his legislature are already scrambling, and they have a number of options. They could simply repeal the law, which seems unlikely. They could “clarify” it, ensuring that religious defenses would not trump anti-discrimination laws. They could edit it to match other RFRAs, making it seem unfair to single out Indiana for a boycott.
Any of these moves would attempt to restore the prior status quo, and we should accept none of them, because the prior status quo wasn’t that good. Instead, we should make it clear that tiptoeing back on discrimination is insufficient; a step forward for equality is needed. We should demand that Indiana add protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity to state anti-discrimination laws.
It is fair to demand that of Indiana, and not states with older RFRAs, because the motivation was very different. The federal RFRA was passed largely to reverse a Supreme Court decision allowing a person to be fired for testing positive for a substance used in a religious ceremony. Most state RFRAs were passed years ago, when another Court decision held that the federal RFRA didn’t apply to state laws. All of that was before the Hobby Lobby decision opened the door to business protection, and before LGBT organizations took a clear stance against such laws.
This round of RFRAs is all about discrimination. If you aren’t convinced by Pence’s inability to answer a simple yes or no question about whether anti-LGBT discrimination should be allowed in Indiana, look at Georgia. When moderate Republican Rep. Mike Jacobs added an anti-discrimination amendment to Georgia’s pending RFRA, the bill’s sponsor said those protections “completely undercut the purpose of the bill,” and he and his colleagues shelved the bill.
Indiana was, proudly, the first state to use an RFRA as a premeditated attack on the LGBT community. That kind of crime deserves a stiff penalty, and our forgiveness should require some evidence of growth and remorse. Any “clarification” of intent would be insufficient and a lie. Simply changing the RFRA at this point would be like letting an arsonist off the hook for putting the fire out. To ensure “Hoosier Hospitality” extends to all, and to deter other states considering similar legislation, we should make it clear that the boycott stands until Indiana enacts statewide LGBT protections, and we should do it before Pence can spin his revisionist history to the media.
