Washington, D.C. — In response to a highly anticipated “fix” to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden today issued the following statement on revisions to a law that allows businesses in Indiana to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, Americans.
The announced change to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act is an important revision that will ensure the legislation cannot be utilized to gut existing municipal nondiscrimination protections. This amendment does not change the reality that for more than 5 million Hoosiers—or roughly 80 percent of Indiana—it has been, and will remain, legal to discriminate against LGBT people. If legislators are genuinely serious about stopping discrimination, they must also add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination provisions. The recent events and confusion in Indiana only serve to further highlight the need for immediate federal action to both clarify the misconstrued federal RFRA and ensure uniform and clear nondiscrimination protections for LGBT Americans in all vital areas of life.
The Center for American Progress has been at the forefront of research on legal discrimination against LGBT Americans. CAP released a major report late last year showing the scope and magnitude of the problem and has advocated for the creation of federal comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation. On Tuesday, CAP released an analysis of Indiana’s economic risk as a result of the backlash to the law.
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