I’m sure Indiana governor Mike Pence thought he could just slide his state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act right past the goalie, placate a few far right nut jobs in that needed to be protected from eating a honey bun next to a gay person at a deli counter, and film a few campaign commercials in a church pew and roll right into a second term.
We don’t live in that kind of world anymore and Mike Pence and his fellow Indiana politicians and business leaders learned it the hard way. The spotlight on Indiana because of the upcoming NCAA Men’s Final Four, especially because of the Final Four, finally helped Pence and his fellow legislators come to a new religious conversion. Thursday, Pence signed a “fix” to the RFRA that would keep businesses from discriminating against gays, lesbians and transgendered people.
Make no mistake, this doesn’t happen without the NCAA and the public pressure it has put on Indiana. The NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis with a lease that goes through 2060. Indianapolis is hoisting the men’s Final Four this year and is scheduled to host the women’s Final Four next year. They’ve also got the Final Four in 2021 and early-round games in 2017. This law, according to NCAA president Mark Emmert, put all that in jeopardy.
Mark Emmert awaits RFRA clarity but says of the NCAA's Indianapolis HQ: "This is a very big deal for us." http://t.co/HG2WSmGNOY
— Cindy Boren (@CindyBoren) March 30, 2015
Emmert said as much in a statement last week.
“The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events,” the statement said. “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees. We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week’s men’s Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill. Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce.”
On Wednesday the four coaches participating in the Final Four, John Calipari of Kentucky, Bo Ryan of Wisconsin, Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Mike Kryzewski of Duke all signed off on a statement against discrimination and in support of the NCAA’s position.
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Former NBA great Charles Barkley made public his thoughts that the NCAA should pull the Final Four out of Indiana as a response to the law.
“As long as anti-gay legislation exists in any state, I strongly believe big events such as the Final Four and Super Bowl should not be held in those states’ cities,” Barkley said in a statement.
And if that wasn’t enough, Indiana basketball legend Reggie Miller made his thoughts known via social media.
— Reggie Miller (@ReggieMillerTNT) March 27, 2015
So did former USC and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Pat Haden, the current Athletics Director at Southern California, who refused to attend the College Football Playoff committee meeting because the law.
I am the proud father of a gay son. In his honor, I will not be attending the CFP committee meeting in Indy this week. #EmbraceDiversity
— Pat Haden (@ADHadenUSC) March 31, 2015
The fact is, in regards to the “fix” for this law which basically makes it toothless and just a redundant state version of the Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, you have sports and big businesses to thank. If all you had against this were national liberal and gay groups and celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Ashton Kutcher, there would have been no changes. Pence and his allies would have advertised that in their campaign ads. They would have presented themselves as soldiers in the “culture war” against Hollywood and Godlessness. And it would have worked.
But throw in Angie’s List putting a campus expansion on hold, Yelp considering fleeing the state along with other companies and the pressure, en-masse from professional and college sports and suddenly Pence gets knocked off his feet on the road to Damascus. It wasn’t shame and wanting diversity that won the day in Indiana. It was business, it was football, it was basketball and more than anything, it was a giant pile of money that was in danger of blowing its way out of Indianapolis.
Or, as Indiana state senator Scott Schneider said of the fix, “I see it’s necessary for the economic viability of the state.”
No kidding.
