Update: Despite a spirited veto campaign from LGBT advocates who warned that a bill passed this week by the Indiana general assembly legalized discrimination, Gov. Mike Pence signed a religious-freedom bill into law Thursday morning.

"This bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way in Indiana, I would have vetoed it," the governor said in a statement. "In fact, it does not even apply to disputes between private parties unless government action is involved. For more than twenty years, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act [a federal law passed by Congress in 1993] has never undermined our nation's anti-discrimination laws, and it will not in Indiana."



However, critics insist SB 101 is broader than federal law.

"It's just not true," Jennifer Wagner, a spokesperson for Freedom Indiana, told BuzzFeed News. "This is not the same."

While the Indiana bill says that a “governmental entity may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion,” it also applies those rules to businesses and interactions between private parties “regardless of whether the state or any other government entity is party to the proceeding.” Under the Indiana law, a religious liberty defense would be available under all state laws and local ordinances, unless state law provides a specific exemption.

Freedom Indiana had mounted a veto effort, along with national LGBT advocacy organizations, saying the bill provided a "license to discriminate."

"He has signed this despite tons and tons of outcry from every corner of the state," Wagner said. Businesses and religious groups had decried the bill this week — including two conventions that threatened to move their events out of the state.

"It will be used to decline service to LGBT Hoosiers," Wagner said. "This is where we are as a state in the nation. We are going to pick on LGBT people."

But Pence's statement stood firm that this was merely a matter of protecting individual liberty from government intrusion: "I support the freedom of religion for every Hoosier of every faith. The Constitution of the United States and the Indiana Constitution both provide strong recognition of the freedom of religion but today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action."

Original article: In a landslide 63-31 vote, the Indiana House of Representatives alarmed LGBT advocates Monday by passing a sweeping religious freedom bill that allows private parties — including businesses open to the public — to invoke a religious defense in legal cases.

The bill cleared Indiana's senate in February.

Gov. Mike Pence resisted calls to veto the bill Monday evening, issuing a statement that said the measure "is about respecting and reassuring Hoosiers that their religious freedoms are intact. I strongly support the legislation and applaud the members of the General Assembly for their work on this important issue. I look forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.”

Critics had ramped up their campaign to defeat the measure in recent weeks, including delivering 10,000 letters of protest to the capitol Monday morning. Freedom Indiana and several national organizations argued the bill would create a loophole in civil rights laws and allow discrimination, particularly against LGBT people.