Stop S.B. 66 | American Civil Liberties Union

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Some Indiana legislators simply haven’t learned their lesson. Last year, we raised our voices – alongside prominent Hoosiers, Indiana businesses, and key national institutions like the NCAA – to amend a harmful Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bill that sanctioned discrimination in the name of religious freedom.

Now Indiana is trying to pass a “Super RFRA,” S.B. 66 – an even worse law. And if it passes, it could set off a wave of similar laws enacted across the country.

This is not what religious freedom is supposed to do in this country.

The “Super RFRA” undermines critical protections against discrimination. If this bill becomes law, people would be allowed to use religious beliefs as an excuse to harm others. A landlord could claim their religion requires them to deny housing to an unmarried mother. Or a business owner may refuse service to a same-sex couple, citing freedom of religion.

Stop S.B. 66 | American Civil Liberties Union

Lines being drawn for Indiana’s next fight over LGBT rights – LGBTQ Nation

Months after a divisive religious objections law thrust Indiana into an unwanted national spotlight, gay rights supporters and religious conservatives are preparing for another potentially bitter debate — this time over enshrining LGBT protections into state law.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence and key leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature have gone to lengths to avoid publicly discussing the matter, even as Democrats plan to push legislation and several Indiana cities have considered adopting their own lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender protections. At the same time, religious conservatives are using a new tactic: raising concerns that children will be exposed to transgender people and what they say are sexual predators in public restrooms if the protections are approved.

No one with a stake in the issue — including a gay-rights coalition that includes many of Indiana‘s prominent businesses — says there’s much room for compromise. That sets the stage for what “could be a huge mess” when the Legislature convenes in January, said Paul Helmke, a public affairs professor at Indiana University and former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne. It also could have a lasting impact on Pence’s re-election bid next year.

Lines being drawn for Indiana’s next fight over LGBT rights

Bring Back Needle-Exchange Funding - Pacific Standard

It was something of a shock when Indiana Governor Mike Pence declared a public health emergency last March—Scott County, in the southern part of the state near the Kentucky border, isn't the kind of place that comes to mind when you think of drug abuse and HIV outbreaks. But by that March, 79 people in the county had tested positive for HIV, a consequence of rampant intravenous drug use in southern Indiana. But it didn't have to be that way, according to a new perspective published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The real culprits, the authors argue, are counterproductive drug policies such as Indiana's ban on needle-exchange programs, and the overuse of prescription painkillers.

"Many observers were surprised" by Pence's declaration, according to authors Steffanie Strathdee and Chris Beyrer. "Other observers, however, had seen it coming." A growing number of people in Scott County, as well as neighboring counties and states, had been using drugs such as the painkiller oxymorphone. But as new policies made those drugs harder to acquire, addicts increasingly turned to alternative injectable drugs, including heroin. And because Indiana makes it hard to get clean needles—using a needle for non-medical purposes is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison—more and more people had to either share or go without a fix.

 

This was a recipe for disaster when it came to HIV and other blood-borne viruses, like hepatitis C. By June 10th of this year, 169 people had tested positive for HIV in southeast Indiana, where Scott County is located, compared with the typical five per year. Eighty percent of those with HIV also tested positive for the hepatitis C virus.

All of this points to the need for an overhaul of some of Indiana's—and the nation's—drug policies, Strathdee and Beyrer argue. First, needle-exchange programs should be the norm. While Pence's order lifted the effective ban on such programs, the reprieve is temporary and only applies to counties undergoing declared public health emergencies, "a requirement that ensures they can only respond to, rather than prevent, new outbreaks." the authors write. That goes for other states—needle-exchange programs are effectively illegal in 24 other states—as well as the federal government. Congress should permanently lift the federal ban prohibiting funding to needle-exchange programs, Strathdee and Beyrer argue.

Bring Back Needle-Exchange Funding - Pacific Standard