Gay rights bill dies after author withdraws legislation

The Indiana Senate won’t act on a controversial bill meant to extend some civil rights to gay and lesbian Hoosiers, effectively killing the legislation for the session.

The bill was expected to be called Tuesday for amendments. But after a Senate Republican caucus, the bill’s author — Sen. Travis Holdman — announced it would not come to the floor.

That means it won’t be eligible for a vote by Wednesday’s deadline for action.

Freedom Indiana, a group advocating for civil rights for the LGBT community, called the decision disappointing, even though it considered the proposal deeply flawed. The group’s leaders had hoped to convince lawmakers to make key changes.

"We've said from the outset that doing nothing was not an option,” Freedom Indiana said in a written statement. “Today, lawmakers did nothing to help protect LGBT people in our state, but our work is only just beginning.”

But opponents of the bill lauded the decision to kill the bill. Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, said "Indiana is not a state that mistreats people" and that continuing a divisive debate would not be productive.

"Laws that single out and punish citizens on the basis of their peaceably expressed beliefs should be rejected, and so we are pleased that the Senate stopped pushing the measure forward," Clark said in a statement. "Every Hoosier should be free to live and work according to their faith without fear of punishment from the state."

Holdman said in a statement that “after several months of honest, good-faith discussions, it has become apparent that Senate Bill 344 lacks the support in the Senate to advance further.”

The bill would have extended civil rights protections to gay and lesbian Hoosiers but punted the issue of transgender discrimination to a summer study committee. It also offered religious exemptions for clergy and other groups.

The Senate Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee last week voted 7-5 to advance Senate Bill 344.

Holdman said he is “disappointed by this outcome, because I believe the balanced approach outlined in this bill would be a step forward for our state.”

“I respect the thoughtful, reasoned approach that my colleagues in the Senate have brought to this debate, but it appears that the timing is not right at this point,” he said.

The debate comes nearly one year after Gov. Mike Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics said would make it easier for businesses to discriminate against customers who are gay and transgender.

A national outcry led the General Assembly to approve a “fix” that said the law could not be used as a defense in discrimination cases. But the uproar led LGBT advocates to lobby for adding sexual oriental and gender identity to the state’s existing civil rights law, which now protects people from discrimination based on race and religion.

But Pence has not embraced those calls and, in his State of the State address, said he would not support any law that could infringe on Hoosiers’ ability to express or practice their religious beliefs.

Holdman said he had hoped his bill balanced those competing interests, although the language that emerged from the Senate Rules Committee was roundly criticized by all sides.

Still, Holdman said, “the underlying issue is not going away.”

“I’m hopeful that those on all sides of the debate can eventually come together and reach compromise,” he said. “If we fail to do that, there is a very real possibility that the courts will do it for us, and I don’t think that is in the best interest of the state — either for the protection of our friends in the LGBT community, or our friends who seek to protect religious liberty.”

Peter Hanscom, who leads the business group Indiana Competes, said in a statement that the bill had “generated the most substantive conversation Indiana has seen regarding anti-discrimination legislation for the LGBT community.”

“From the outset, companies large and small organized together to work with lawmakers to find a sensible solution that provides equal protections for LGBT Hoosiers and tells the true story about the negative effects of RFRA on our state's economy,” Hanscom said. “Indiana’s economic competitiveness and the Hoosier brand have potentially been compromised again. Failure to continue working toward a remedy casts doubt on the sincerity of the Senate’s effort.”

The Indy Chamber said SB344 wasn't perfect, but would have been a "major step forward."

"Despite its failure in the Senate, the expansion of statewide non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity remains squarely on the pro-business agenda," the Chamber said in a written statement.