The Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday morning 7-0 in favor of controversial and discriminatory “religious freedom” legislation. None of the committee’s Democrats were present to oppose the measure.
Senate Bill 101 will provide a free pass to people and businesses with supposed strongly held religious beliefs to be able to discriminate against serving the LGBT community.
The “Right To Discriminate” Bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to gain easy approval from the Republican super majority.
Synopsis:
Religious freedom restoration. Prohibits a governmental entity from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the governmental entity can demonstrate that the burden: (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering the compelling governmental interest. Provides a procedure for remedying a violation.
The Human Rights Campaign has not replied to queries by this website at the time of posting if they will lobby against this Bill. (And I won’t hold my breath)
You can read the full Bill HERE
The US Supremes will strike this down, if it comes to that. That’s if Indiana’s doesn’t do it first. You can’t use religion as an excuse to do illegal things. I could say my religion requires me to snort coke, but that won’t get me a pass on drug charges.