The governors of Arkansas and Indiana Thursday signed revised “religious freedom” laws after a national uproar over the original bills’ potential to foster anti-gay agendas.
One day after Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson demanded a revision to make the bill match 1993 federal legislation, he signed a version approved by the state House.
Hutchinson said at the signing ceremony Thursday that lawmakers toiled over the draft overnight to make it accommodate the state’s “diverse workforce and diverse culture.”
The measure is similar to the bill sent to Hutchinson last week, but he demanded revisions — heeding objections from major employer Wal-Mart and his own son Seth, a union activist.
In Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence signed a revised bill adding new protections to the state’s wildly polarizing Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“Over the past week this law has become a subject of great misunderstanding and controversy across our state and nation. However we got here, we are where we are, and it is important that our state take action to address the concerns that have been raised and move forward,” he said in a statement.
Both laws ensure business owners cannot use their beliefs as a defense for discriminating against the gay community.
“The new law will unequivocally state in the strongest possible terms that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act will not be able to discriminate against anyone, anywhere, anytime,” Indiana’s Republican Senate President Pro Tempore David Long said at a press conference.
The original law, which Pence signed last week, triggered an intense national debate on religion and personal freedoms. It would have prohibited any local government from passing laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to express religious beliefs — with businesses included in the definition of a “person.”
The outcry against the measure centered on the argument that the law is a thinly veiled attempt to use religious freedom to sanction discrimination by businesses against LGBT customers.
A Twitter campaign pushed a boycott of Indiana services, and several states, New York among them, took measures to curb state-funded travel to the Hoosier State, which will host the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four this weekend. Several notable names, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, spoke out against the measure, and the band Wilco cancelled a concert planned in the state.
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