Ohio killed RFRA bill – but Gov. Kasich hints at support

COLUMBUS – Ohio's religious-freedom controversy flamed out last year almost before it started, and the Oxford state representative who introduced the legislation says he doesn't think it's coming back.

But on Tuesday, Gov. John Kasich, a possible presidential candidate, through a spokesman endorsed the idea of both a religious-freedom bill and nondiscrimination policies. And House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, has suggested gay rights and religious-freedom activists consider compromising by agreeing to legislation that includes both of those issues.

"The governor is confident that, in the land of freedom, we can find a way to preserve our religious freedom and also live free from discrimination," Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said in the statement.

Next door in Indiana, a newly passed RFRA bill has created a national media firestorm. After Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill into law last week, some businesses and leaders are vowing to boycott the state due to the potential for businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples. On Tuesday, Pence called on fellow Republicans to pass legislation to spell out that the new law doesn't allow discrimination.

State Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Oxford, introduced a similar religious-freedom bill in 2013 but withdrew the proposal last year after concerns surfaced that it would allow businesses to discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation. He doesn't plan to bring it back.

"I know of no one interested in reintroducing a RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) bill in Ohio," Derickson said Tuesday in a text message to an Enquirer reporter.

Ohio lawmakers are free to introduce any bill they'd like, but no House Republican has so far discussed bringing back the RFRA legislation or anything similar to it, said Brittany Warner, spokeswoman for Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville.

Still, Rosenberger suggested last month that religious-freedom advocates and gay-rights activists compromise, perhaps trading some sort of religious-freedom bill for anti-discrimination legislation.

"I don't think those that are part of -- whether you're the far right or you're part of the religious beliefs that you hold -- want to see those in the LGBT community discriminated upon. And I don't think those in the LGBT community want to see the rights of those who have strong religious beliefs discriminated upon," Rosenberger told the City Club of Cleveland last month. "Surely we can find a middle ground and makes something happen that protects everybody in the right direction."

If GOP caucuses decide to pass such a bill, fellow Republican Kasich suggested he'd support them – if the proposal included provisions to protect against discrimination.

When he served in Congress, Kasich supported the 1993 federal religious freedom law, spokesman Nichols said in a statement. And like Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland before him, Kasich signed an executive order in his first month in office forbidding the state government from discriminating against its employees based on sexual orientation. (He omitted gender identity from the order, which opponents say leaves transgender Ohioans vulnerable when they seek state employment.)

"In our great, varied and diverse nation, Americans have always been able to find the right way to tolerate our differences, and the governor is confident we'll continue to successfully do that," Nichols said.

Activists last year called on lawmakers to do more than just kill the religious-freedom bill. Despite Kasich's executive order, Ohio lacks a state law that would prohibit discrimination in hiring or housing based on sexual orientation.

The Legislature has declined to pass such a bill in previous years, despite support from some moderate Republicans.

Supporters have yet to introduce an nondiscrimination bill in the current General Assembly, whose session runs from January through December 2016. Past nondiscrimination proposals have included exceptions for religious groups and for employers with fewer than 15 employees, but have failed to gain wide support from business owners and conservative Republicans.

State Sen. Frank LaRose, R-Copley Township, who sponsored a previous nondiscrimination bill, said he's open to talking about a compromise that could include religious-freedom language.

"That, to me, sounds like good news that the governor and the speaker of the House are both open to the concept that we have a deficiency in our civil rights laws," LaRose said. "I think we can recognize that we need to protect people's religious liberty and at the same time protect the civil rights of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters."

Ohio's RFRA bill last year became a casualty of another state's religious-freedom bill -- this time in Arizona. That state's bill would have allowed business owners to refuse service to a customer for a reason such as sexual orientation if the refusal was based on a "sincerely held" religious belief. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the measure.

The same week, Derickson and fellow bill sponsor Bill Patmon, a Cleveland Democrat, withdrew Ohio's RFRA bill.

"We don't want a bill that discriminates in any way against any group of people," Derickson told The Enquirer last year.

"What we did want, what the intent was, was to protect our First Amendment religious rights. And if indeed the bill went further and in any way discriminated – which I think is questionable, I'm not certain that it did. But if it did, we want to stop it. And we're going to stop it. As far as I'm concerned, at this point in time, it's over."