Indiana and Arkansas Religious Freedom Restoration Acts

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Overview

Indiana and Arkansas Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, also know as Indiana SB 101 and Arkansas SB 975, are two bills passed in March 2015 by the state legislatures of Arkansas and Indiana. The bills are controversial due to the fact that they allow businesses and individuals to assert that their religion is a defense in discrimination lawsuits, exempting them from federal non-discrimination laws.

Background

The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed in 1993^[1]. This law was partly intended to protect the religious freedom of Native Americans, allowing them the ceremonial use of peyote and the ability to conduct ceremonial gatherings on land they considered sacred. However, in 2014, the Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision^[2] recognized a corporation’s right to religious belief, and shortly thereafter, several states introduced bills that would allow corporations to discriminate based on those beliefs. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill in 2014, but in March 2015, the governors of Indiana and Arkansas ratified theirs.

Before Governor Mike Pence ratified SB 101 in Indiana, many online groups, including the National LGBTQ Task Force^[3] were calling on him to veto it. When that didn’t happen, their campaigns reoriented towards protest and boycott. The bill experienced widespread criticism from people as disparate as Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, Inc, and pop-singer Miley Cyrus. Arkansas passed a similar bill on April 2nd, 2015.

Senator Cotton thinks gay community needs to get “perspective” cuz “In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay.”
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 2, 2015

Notable Developments

The passing of Indiana’s bill led to a large outcry online, with the creation of many comics, protest based image macros, and other internet-based conversation.

http://mrdiddles.tumblr.com/post/114618064530/me-hoe-dont-do-it-mike-pence-signs-the

Boycotts of Indiana

Shortly after the bill was signed, businesses and individuals across America began to announce boycotts or cessation of business ties with the state of Indiana. Eight municipalities, including the state of New York and the city of San Francisco, banned non-essential travel to Indiana by state employees. Large non-profit Angie’s List halted the expansion of a business campus and many other companies issued statements against state^[4].

Memories Pizza

March 31st, 2015, the owners of Walkerton, Indiana pizzeria Memories Pizza told local TV station WBND that, based on their Christian beliefs, “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide them pizzas for a wedding, we would have to say no.”^[5] Many national news publications, including TMZ^[6], picked up the story as being the first instance of an Indiana business refusing to serve customers.

Soon thereafter, Memories Pizza’s Yelp^[7] page was flooded with over 300 reviews both for and against the decisions of the owners.

The pizzeria received many harassing phone calls, and a hoax was spread on Reddit^[8] and Tumblr^[9] with images claiming to be screenshots of their hacked web site, which purportedly sold a penis-shaped pizza.

On April 1st, 2015, the pizzeria closed to avoid this harassment, and a GoFundMe^[10] campaign was launched to raise money for the owners. As of April 3, 2015, the GoFundMe page has received over $600,000 in donations, much of them anonymous.

The Sentencing of Purvi Patel

On Monday, March 30th, 2015, Indiana woman Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide, after having claimed to have a stillborn, premature baby and disposing of its body inappropriately^[11]. The state of Indiana claimed that Patel had induced an abortion at home with drugs she bought online, though none of the drugs were found in her bloodstream at the time. Her sentencing, seen as harsh, especially after a trial filled with potential flaws, added to the outcry against the morality of the state of Indiana.

Changes to SB-101

On April 2nd, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana signed an amendment to SB 101 to include anti-discrimination safeguards. The changes included the nullifying of the clause that would allow businesses to refuse services to people based on religious belief, but it did not add protection for the state’s LGBT community.^[12]