A view down Market Street to the Indiana state capitol building.
Indiana’s Senate Republican Caucus voted this week not to consider a resolution that would have proposed amending the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. This vote means the amendment is unlikely to advance during this legislative session. The resolution would require approval by the Senate and House in two consecutive legislative sessions, and, if approved, would then go before the voters.
HRC worked with Indiana Equality to oppose the proposed amendment and organized our members to contact their legislators to urge them to oppose the resolution. And our members jumped into action: nearly 800 HRC members in Indiana sent messages to their elected officials.
Similar measures were also introduced in the Indiana House of Representatives, but House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer has indicated that they will not be considered this session. The legislative session is scheduled to end in late April 2009.
Brandon Monson, Indiana Equality Communications Chair, had this to say about Indiana’s recent success with the Marriage Discrimination Amendment:
Finally, five years of bipartisan advocacy has resulted in the Indiana Senate Republican caucus voting not to consider Senate Joint Resolution 15 (SJR-15) – the Marriage Discrimination Amendment – during the 2009 session of the Indiana General Assembly.
Credit for this success is due to the diligent and continuing efforts of average Hoosiers from all over the state. Indiana Equality Action and its coalition partners – the Human Rights Campaign, Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, Indianapolis Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination, Stop the Amendment, Citizens for Civil Rights and regional coordinating committees – all of those supportive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied individuals. Your support has helped ensure that people throughout Indiana contacted legislators to tell them hate and intolerance have no place in Indiana’s constitution.
…Much work is needed to secure basic rights for Indiana’s LGBT citizens. Indiana Equality Action is still working with legislators on both sides of the aisle to secure inclusive bias crimes protections for Hoosiers, amend Indiana’s Civil Rights law to protect against discrimination based on either sexual orientation or gender identity, and to insure hospital visitation rights for unmarried couples.
Indiana statutory law already prohibits marriage by gay or lesbian couples. The resolution, which sought to place the proposed amendment before voters, would have written this prohibition into the state constitution and also threatened to prohibit other forms of relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples.
If you are a Indiana resident, use our action alert to let your representative know that you support HB 1250, a bill that would extend anti-discrimination and civil rights statutes to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
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