Dear Indiana, please stop immediately
Growing up in Indiana, I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to stay for the rest of my life. A sissy boy growing up in small town, where the best past times were the county fair every August, hitting the race track for a night filled with loud competition, or displaying dominance at the basketball court, I didn’t fit in. I also, didn’t see myself settling down amongst the vast amount overly religious bigots who almost outnumber the abundance of cornfields.
But I didn’t hate growing up in Indiana. I was able to brush off the people who give the state a bad name, and live an authentic life. Why? My family, and the people we surrounded ourselves with, were the most supporting, accepting, and welcoming people that I have ever known. The Midwest values of neighborliness, kindness, humility, and never knowing a stranger ran deep in my development, but the same can not be said for the people who continue to belittle the LGBT community in Indiana.
First, it was the repeal of gay marriage. Then, it was the Religious Freedom Act, that was a direct hit at the LGBT community, disguised as something else. But now, Indiana just doesn’t care who it offends.
Indiana Senate Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s civil rights laws while carving out several exemptions for those with strong religious objections.
The measure would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. But exemptions would allow schools, employers and others to determine their own restroom policies for transgender people; businesses with fewer than four employees to refuse wedding services to same-sex couples; and religious-affiliated adoption agencies to reject prospective same-sex parents.
“This bill is an attempt to balance civil rights and religious liberty,” Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said in announcing the proposal.
This is a disgrace to all Hoosiers, former Hoosiers, and future Hoosiers. The bill, which they believe is a step in the right direction, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This isn’t a compromise, this is a way for them to continue discriminating against LGBT people.
“It aims to guarantee the right of some medical, social services and other institutions to discriminate against married same-sex couples, and to do so with taxpayer dollars. It aims to write separate, lesser protections for LGBT people into state law,” says Jennifer Pizer, law and policy project director at Lambda Legal.
Luckily, I am out of Indiana. But, my younger lesbian sister isn’t. My younger trans cousin isn’t. My queer friends who didn’t want to leave the state are not. There are plenty of queers in Indiana, that will have to live with this bill if it passes. So, Indiana, please stop living in the past and giving everyone else a reason to laugh at you. It’s embarrassing.
