By Perry Bacon Jr.
The roiling debate over Indiana's new religious freedom law illustrates an increasing challenge for the Republican Party, which finds itself caught between growing national support for gay rights and the large bloc of deeply religious GOP voters wary of policy changes like same-sex marriage.
Many Republicans have conceded that national acceptance of gay marriage is inevitable, with court rulings across the country striking down same-sex marriage bans. But social conservatives say that the next front in their fight should be to protect what they believe is religious freedom, arguing that Christians or people of other faiths who oppose same-sex unions should not be required to take actions that could be seen as condoning gay marriage.
Indiana social conservatives have been pushing for the adoption of a specific provision to defend religious freedom, and Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, signed one into law last week. But the resulting national backlash - including from big business organizations - showed that the religious freedom argument may no longer be an easy way for Republicans to balance the views of gay rights backers and Christian conservatives.
Entertainers and actors have blasted the state over the law. So have a number of liberal politicians, most notably Hillary Clinton.
But perhaps most significantly to both Pence and the Republican Party, which seeks to cast itself as very-pro-business, a number of major companies have attacked the law, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
"We have never seen reactions like this, we never expected that," said David Long, a Republican leader in the Indiana State Senate, which overwhelmingly approved the provision.
Pence and other Indiana Republicans have suggested the law was not intended to target people who are gay. But some key supporters of the provision have been explicit about its aims.
"Christian businesses and individuals deserve protection from those who support homosexual marriages and those who support government recognition and approval of gender identity (men who dress as women)," reads a message praising the law on the website of the Indiana group Advance America, whose executive director attended the bill-signing Pence hosted on Thursday at the governor's office.
Advance America writes that the law is important because "Christian bakers, florists and photographers should not be punished for refusing to participate in a homosexual marriage!," "A Christian business should not be punished for refusing to allow a man to use the women's restroom," and "A church should not be punished because they refuse to let the church be used for a homosexual wedding."
Pence has long been closely allied with conservative Christian groups. He and Indiana lawmakers rejected attempts to insert provisions into the law that would have specifically added protections for people who are gay.
But the national controversy over the law seems to have caught Pence by surprise. He has defended the law by noting that 19 states have religious freedom protections, as does the federal government.
The key difference is not necessarily just the provision Pence signed — although its opponents note that its language is more specific than statutes in other states — but also the surrounding political climate. When Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993, it was at a time when both liberals and conservatives were angered with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that had allowed the firings of two Native Americans who had used the drug peyote as part of a religious ceremony.
But religious freedom is now being invoked largely by conservatives. The Supreme Court last year defended a move by the company Hobby Lobby to not offer some kinds of contraception to their employees because it was against the religious beliefs of the company's owners.
Liberals are worried this religious freedom argument will be extended to limit gay rights. But while public opinion on abortion is more complicated, the trends on gay marriage are all headed in the same direction: Towards greater acceptance.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act: What You Need to Know
A recent Pew Research Center poll showed about 54 percent of Americans support same-sex unions, compared to 39 percent in 2008.
Perhaps just as significantly, in Silicon Valley, where some of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. are based, acceptance of gay rights is almost universal.
Major sporting organizations have also become increasingly wary of policies that appear to discriminate against LGBT participants. The Indianapolis-based NCAA and the owner of the Indiana Pacers have both expressed concern over the Indiana provision.
"We have never seen reactions like this, we never expected that"
But the Republican Party has a huge bloc of older, more religious voters who are more opposed to gay marriage than other Americans. A recent Pew poll found that 71 percent of white evangelicals and 68 percent of Republicans say that wedding-related businesses should be allowed to refuse to provide services to same-sex couples. (The broader public is divided, with 47 percent saying businesses should be able to refuse services, while 49 percent say businesses should be required to offer services to same-sex couples.)
Among those in the "Silent Generation," born from 1928 to 1945, only about 35 percent support gay marriage, compared to 67 percent of millennials.
The dilemma faced by Pence, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, will likely soon be faced by other Republicans.
The party has shifted dramatically on gay rights over the last decade. In 2004, Republicans pushed for gay marriage bans in states around the country, and President George W. Bush supported a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
Few Republicans are calling for such an amendment now. Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who is one of Jeb Bush's top advisers, was part of a group that urged the Supreme Court two years ago to strike down California's gay marriage ban.
So far, nearly all of the GOP contenders are saying they are personally opposed to gay marriage, even most suggest they are willing to accept its inevitability. And many of them have said it is important to protect religious freedom, even though most they have not spoken out on specific laws like the provision in Indiana.
But their answers are careful, and reveal the complexity of the politics around this issue.
"I don't know about this law, but religious freedom is a serious issue and is increasingly so," Bush said earlier this month, when asked about a provision that the Georgia legislature is considering that is similar to the Indiana law.
"People that act on their conscience shouldn't be discriminated against, for sure. There should be protections," he added. "People have a right to do that, just as we need to be respectful for people who are in long-term committed relationships. Sorting that out is important."
First published March 30 2015, 2:11 PM
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