Tuesday at a press conference Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN) said while the intent of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was never to discriminate, he is working with the Indiana legislature to fix the perception that it allows for a business to refuse service.
Pence said, “Let me say first and foremost as I have said to each one of them the religious freedom restoration act was about religious liberty, not about discrimination. As I said last week, had this law been about legalizing discrimination, I would have vetoed it. This law does not give anyone a license to discriminate. The religious freedom restoration act in Indiana does not give anyone the right to deny services to anyone in this state. It is simply a balancing test used by our federal courts and jurisdictions across the country for more than two decades. And let me say on the subject of the bill itself I don’t believe for a minute that it was the intention of the general assembly to create a license to discriminate or right to deny services to gays, lesbians or anyone else in the state, and certainly wasn’t my intent. But I can appreciate that that’s become the perception, not just here in Indiana but all across this country. And we need to confront that and confront it boldly an way that respects the interests of all involved.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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