April 2^nd

The Governor of Indiana, Mike Spence, has been much in the news lately and it’s all the fault of the media’s distortions of his signature new push to protect religious freedom. Unfortunately Sam’s religious freedom, which is protected by this law, frees him to discriminate against Joe whose lifestyle Sam finds objectionable on religious grounds. Pence claims his law doesn’t do any such thing; he himself really hates discrimination, hates it all to pieces. He is almost teary eyed when he recites his participation in the 45^th anniversary of the Selma March. Of course there are many different kinds of people against whom one can discriminate, not all of them are black!

May be we should look at Pence’s voting record, and some of his comments, back when he was in Congress. In 2000 he said that Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a minority entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities. Then he wanted no federal dollars spent by organizations celebrating and encouraging behaviors that led to the spread of HIV. The money should instead be directed toward Conversion Therapy. He opposed “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” He opposed the Mathew Shepard Hate crimes Act because pastors would be punished for expressing a Biblical world view on the issue of homosexual behavior. (Matthew Shepard was a 21 year old University of Wyoming student murdered because he was gay; the murderers are each serving life sentences.) This was Congressman Spence’s view on issues involving the LGBT community. This is an interesting history for someone who despises discrimination.

Pence’s legislation met with outrage from many good conservative sources. He claimed that it was just “misunderstood” and misrepresented by the media. That line of chat didn’t work at all. Many major corporations said that Indiana would not see any more of their business until everyone, including the LGBT community, was accommodated. Even Angie’s List, headquartered in Indiana and a major donor to Spence’s campaigns, criticized the law; even so, he said he wouldn’t modify it…then. Now he has changed his mind; the law has been modified so that business owners doing business with the public will not be protected from a lawsuit if they refuse service on a claim that their religious beliefs forbid providing that service to certain people. This means that if you hold a religious belief that would be violated by doing business with some members of the public don’t get into a business requiring you to serve the public.

There is a lot of bigotry Indiana law still permits, as Angie’s List and other big corporate names have pointed out, and they want that changed.  You can still be fired or denied housing because of your sexual preference. Spence hasn’t fixed that and he probably won’t unless his feet continue to be held close to the economic fire.

For the time being Spence’s problem may be reduced just slightly, but now he has to deal with all the bigots who were patting him on the back for his firm and heroic stand in favor of religious freedom. They’re mad about any change in the law. The supporters of the original unmodified law include every major declared and undeclared Republican Presidential candidate! Gee, what’s a guy to do?