Skip navigation
Restaurants become a battlefront in Indiana Religious Freedom law

Restaurants become a battlefront in Indiana Religious Freedom law

Legislation raises concerns that service could be denied to certain groups based on religious defense

Restaurants have emerged as one of the main battlegrounds in the controversy over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the effect it might have on equality in public accommodations.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence asked legislators Tuesday to provide a “fix” to the act he signed last week, after it created an uproar in the Hoosier State and nationwide.

Restaurants seemed to be pushed into the crosshairs of the controversy, which was based on concerns that the law would provide businesses and individuals a religious defense in denying service to certain groups of citizens, especially those of a minority sexual orientation.

The controversy had been festering since last week and drew protests from celebrities and concerns from companies as varied as Apple and Angie’s List. Governors in Connecticut, New York and Washington barred non-essential travel to the state.

In a Tuesday morning press conference, Pence pledged to "fix" Indiana's law to clarify that it does not condone discrimination against gays and lesbians, and asked state legislators to provide legislation by this week.

"It would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses a right to deny services to anyone," Pence said.

Pence wrote Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal: “If I saw a restaurant owner refuse to serve a gay couple, I wouldn’t eat there anymore.”

He also wrote in the column: “Last week I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA, which ensures that Indiana law will respect religious freedom and apply the highest level of scrutiny to any state or local governmental action that infringes on people’s religious liberty. Unfortunately, the law has stirred a controversy and in recent days has been grossly misconstrued as a ‘license to discriminate.’

“I abhor discrimination,” he said. “I believe in the Golden Rule that you should ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’”

But one widely distributed radio show clip on Indianapolis’ Radio Now 100.9 showed the darker side of the issue.

“Late last week, we got a glimpse into the mind of one Indiana restaurant owner, who called into the local Kyle & Rachel radio show to proudly declare that he has discriminated against gay customers and is looking forward to getting the governor’s explicit permission to keep doing so moving forward,” the website Mediaite noted.

The man identified himself only as “Ryan” and did not mention the name of his restaurant. He told the radio hosts he had discriminated against gay people in the past, pretending there was a problem in the kitchen so he didn’t have to serve them.

“That makes you feel OK?” host Rachel Bogle asked. “I mean, when you get a bed at night saying, ‘I’ve discriminated against other human beings,’ you feel at ease with that?”

The caller said he felt fine about it because it was a business he owned. “We don’t want to have this in our place of business, it’s just not right,” he said.

The perception led Josh Driver, a native of Valparaiso, Ind., to create a campaign called “Open for Service” two weeks ago. Its robin-egg-blue stickers began popping up across the capital city of Indianapolis, whose Republican mayor had raised concerns about the effect of the law on business and tourism in the city.

Some restaurant operators quickly put stickers on their windows to assure potential customers they were welcome.

Driver told CBS, “It kind of helps, hopefully, perpetuate what I’d like to call an open-door economy, to where people who believe in non-discriminatory business practices will go ahead and take their money there, instead of potentially being turned away.”

Proceeds from the Open for Service campaign go to SCORE, a non-profit that helps launch small businesses.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish