Indiana Senate strips hate crime bill, scrapping gender identity and other protected traits – By Kaitlin Lange, Chris Sikich and Arika Herron (Indianapolis Star) / Feb 19 2019
The Indiana Senate voted to amend a hate crimes proposal Tuesday, scrapping from the bill all protected characteristics, including gender identity, race and sexual orientation.
The amendment to Senate Bill 12 removed the list of specific characteristics and added that judges can consider bias more generally as an aggravating circumstance when weighing a stricter sentence for a crime.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said the amended bill “does not get Indiana off the list of states without a bias crime law.”
“We have a long way to go, a lot of work to do, and fortunately the time yet still to do it,” Holcomb said. “I will continue to fight for the right ultimate outcome for our state and citizens this year so we’re not right back here in the same place next year.”
But he didn’t say if he would sign it into law if it arrived at his desk as is.
Vandals painted a Nazi flag on a garbage bin shed at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla on West 116th Street in Carmel, Ind. (Photo11: Justin Mack / IndyStar)
Republicans had already hashed out the amendment ahead of time in caucus, just as they have in past years, delaying the start of session by almost two hours. And after debating the amendment, the Senate suddenly broke for another impromptu caucus meeting for 30 minutes before voting.
Only seven Republicans — including bill authors Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, and Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores — joined the Democrats in voting against the amendment. But no Republican spoke against the amendment on the Senate floor.
In response, Senate Democrats staged a walkout and didn’t return to vote on any of the remaining bills on the calendar.
“You don’t have agree with how somebody lives to respect their ability to live freely and responsibly in this state,” Said Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis. “But when you take that ability away, knowing that they have been targeted, it is a shame and this is a disaster for the state of Indiana.
“It might be worse than RFRA,” he said, invoking Indiana’s controversial 2015 religious freedom law.
Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, defended the amended bill — and the state’s reputation.
“This conversation has always been philosophical,” Bray said. “Do you include a list in which you can maybe leave somebody off, or the court could interpret somebody not included in that, or do you make it more general so that everybody can be included?”
Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, author of the amendment that passed Tuesday, argued that it “covers everyone.”
Other senators disagreed. Democrat Sen. J.D. Ford, the first openly gay senator, said this amendment would tell people like him they don’t exist.
Likewise, Democrat Sen. Lonnie Randolph, an African-American lawmaker, demanded in a passionate floor speech, “Why don’t you recognize us?”
Just the day before, business leaders had thrown their support behind a proposal that was “strong, effective and specific.”
State Sen. Jim Merritt, who is also running for Indianapolis mayor, was among the handful of Republicans to vote against the amendment.He voted for a similar hate crimes bill in 2016 that passed out of the Senate but later died in the House.
He said he was especially moved by speeches by Democrats Taylor and Randolph, who said that, as black men, they see the need for specific protections.
“I will tell you, early in my career, we were in this room with a 10-hour discussion and I voted against it,” Merritt admitted. “I think through the years Indiana has changed. I think I’ve learned and I’ve evolved. I know my constituents have. You always think about what your constituents want you to do.”
He still plans to vote for the bill, despite the language being stripped, because he wants to get some bias crime language in the books.
The Senate will now consider the bill in a floor vote as early as Thursday, and Bray said he is confident he has enough Republicans to support the measure as it is now for it to pass.
If the bill passes, it will move to the House, where Speaker Brian Bosma has indicated his support for a less-specific hate crimes proposal, similar to the amended Senate bill’s language.
