Governors in Indiana and Arkansas on
Thursday signed revised versions of so-called religious freedom
bills.
After Republican Indiana Governor Mike
Pence signed the bill last week, an intense backlash led him to ask
lawmakers for a fix.
The changes, which were tucked inside
an unrelated bill, prohibit businesses from using the law as a
defense for refusing “to offer or provide services, facilities, use
of public accommodations, goods, employment, or housing” to any
customer based on “race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national
origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or
United States military service.”
“There'll be some who think [this]
bill goes too far, some who think it doesn't go far enough,” Pence
tweeted. “As governor, I must always put the interest of IN 1st.”
Unhappy with the resolution was Bill
Oesterele, CEO of Angie's List. In a statement released shortly
after lawmakers announced the changes, Oesterele said that he was
looking for Indiana to make sexual orientation and gender identity
protected classes.
“There was no repeal of RFRA and no
end to discrimination of homosexuals in Indiana,” he
said. “Employers in most of the state of Indiana can fire a
person simply for being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or
Questioning. That's just not right and that's the real issue.”
Last week, Oesterele put on hold a
planned expansion to its campus in Indianapolis in response to
passage of the law.
(Related: Angie's
List says planned Indiana expansion on hold over anti-gay bill.)
On Tuesday Arkansas lawmakers delivered
a similar bill to Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, who had
previously pledged his signature. But that was before the uproar in
Indiana and Arkansas-based Walmart, the world's largest retailer,
weighed in against the bill.
(Related: Walmart
asks Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto anti-gay bill.)
On Wednesday, Hutchinson asked
lawmakers to change the bill's language to more closely mirror a
federal version approved in 1993, and on Thursday afternoon,
Hutchinson signed it. The revised version does not address the issue
of discrimination. Instead it uses the federal definition of a
“person” that does not include corporations or associations.