Amendment to prevent LGBT workplace discrimination fails
A measure to prohibit workplace discrimination against LGBT people failed in the Indiana House on Thursday afternoon, despite gaining more than a handful of Republican votes in support.
A measure to prohibit workplace discrimination against LGBT people failed in the Indiana House on Thursday afternoon, despite gaining more than a handful of Republican votes in support.
After a Senate committee advanced a civil rights bill that excluded transgender people and included several caveats, House Speaker Brian Bosma said Thursday that he has “yet to talk to someone who thinks the bill is a good idea.”
Sen. Mike Young, an Indianapolis Republican, said critics who “fear monger” had mischaracterized his proposal, which would have thrown out the state’s religious freedom law and replaced it with more robust protections for worship, speech and bearing arms.
A GOP state senator has filed a bill that would provide discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and bisexual people, but bows to concerns some have about transgender rights.
On the eve of the 2016 legislative session, the governor released a list of bills that doesn’t include proposals to expand civil rights protections to people who are gay or transgender.
Freedom Indiana will advocate for the changes when they are debated during the upcoming legislative session.
Officials in some Indiana cities with ordinances that provide protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents are concerned that a bill lawmakers will consider in the 2016 session could undermine their local authority.
The proposal comes as a new poll finds that most Indiana voters support adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Indiana’s civil rights law.
An Indiana legislative leader assured business leaders Monday that Senate Republicans plan to introduce a bill that will address both civil rights for the LGBT community and religious freedom.
Freedom Indiana named a campaign director on Wednesday and plans to start hiring workers for state outreach, hoping to spur political leaders to expand Indiana’s civil rights protections.
Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard announced Monday that he will introduce the ordinance to the City Council on Aug. 17.
Jurors have ruled that a former suburban Indianapolis paramedic was discriminated against when she was fired for having Type 1 diabetes.
Freedom Indiana campaign manager Katie Blair says lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents now need civil rights protections so they can’t be fired or denied services due to their sexual orientation.
A crowdfunding campaign for an Indiana pizzeria that came under fire after its owners said their religious beliefs wouldn't allow them to cater a gay wedding has raised more than $840,000.
While many hailed the revisions to the state’s new “religious freedom” law as a salve for the wounds suffered by the state after its passage, neither religious conservatives nor gay rights activists are satisfied.
The revised legislation prohibits providers from using the law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations. Legislators hammered out the change after critics claimed the “religious freedom” law could be used to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Bill Oesterle wasn’t the first business leader to denounce the measure, which sparked a national firestorm and was widely seen as anti-gay. But he was among the first Indiana Republicans to vocally support gay rights.
Indiana lawmakers have approved changes to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to address charges that it could allow discrimination against lesbians and gays. Gov. Mike Pence has not indicated whether he’ll sign it.
On Monday afternoon, lawmakers will debate broadly worded proposals that opponents fear would give businesses the justification to discriminate against customers who don’t share the same beliefs.
The owner of a nightclub in the heart of Broad Ripple believes his landlords nearly doubled his rent for just one reason: to force him and his mostly African-American clientele from the building.