opinion

Tully: Statehouse Republicans embarrass Indiana. Again.

Let's call it what it is. It's discrimination wrapped up in a legislative bow. It's divisiveness painted as something holy. It's tired and cynical politics weakly masked as a principled stand.

Sure, it is cleverly labeled with a market-tested name (the Religious Freedom bill), but please don't be fooled: This is nothing more than a government endorsement of discrimination. Yes, in this land of liberty, our state's government is prepared to push into law a measure allowing one group of people to tell others that they are not equal and not welcome at their businesses.

Those black-and-white images of signs announcing which customers businesses welcomed? They don't seem so much like faded relics of history today.

Once again, Statehouse Republicans have found a way to divide our state. They've done so with a bill that will allow business owners to judge the morality of their potential customers and to decide whether those customers are worthy of spending their money in their shop, bakery, or whatever.

My goodness, can Indiana Republicans just get past an anger over gays and lesbians that borders on the obsessive? Apparently, they cannot. And, so, after losing their war over same-sex marriage last year, Statehouse Republicans have joined a national conservative effort to create a crisis that doesn't exist. Along the way, they are making clear that yesterday — or, to be more accurate, the last century — still controls today's Grand Old Party.

As ridiculous as this is, it's also serious and damaging. A General Assembly that should and could spend its 2015 session tackling the state's deeply entrenched problems is instead seeking to tear our state a little further apart.

It's sickening. It's pathetic. And for a moment this week, before I decided I would not allow some misguided politicians to define the state I love, it made me ashamed to be a Hoosier.

The moment of shame, mixed with anger and a bit of sadness, hit hardest when Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, sent out a brutal but fair message on Twitter Monday night: "Is it going to be legal," he asked, "to discriminate when we come to the Final Four?"

Well, the law won't be in place by the time the 2015 Final Four comes to town next week. But it will be in place the next time it comes here. And the next time a lot of visitors come here. And, yes, Jason, I guess that is the goal our legislative majority wants to achieve. They want businesses to have the right to turn you and so many others away because they don't like who you are.

On behalf of a good chunk of Indiana, I'm sorry.

The Tweet from Collins came hours after a majority of Indiana House Republicans passed the so-called Religious Freedom bill, which should from this point on be called the Freedom to Discriminate bill. That vote paved the way for the Senate to send the bill along to Gov. Mike Pence, who is eagerly waiting to give it a hug.

When he does, Indiana will have officially endorsed discrimination. Its government majority will have sent a message to many of its residents that they are not equal citizens of this state. It will have told the nation that Indiana government will side in some cases with discriminators, and not those who have been discriminated.

It doesn't matter whether this new law is limited in scope. The fact that it will be a law at all is shameful. And it's going to hurt Indiana.

Business leaders have made clear that the law will add to the troubles Indiana already has with luring companies and employees to Indiana. If the legislature were trying to reinforce Indiana's image as a backwater, it couldn't have done better than this. I Googled "Indiana" Tuesday morning, and this issue was at the top of the page.

How embarrassing.

But this shouldn't be a debate about the economic impact of a law, or about the state's image. That is not what matters most. Rather, it should be a debate about being a decent and welcoming state. Or at least a tolerant one. One that abhors the idea of dividing its people for political means. It should a debate that considers the harm a public endorsement of discrimination can do to the people who will now be more open targets of discrimination. It should be a debate about what kind of state Indiana truly wants to be.

Few laws are worse than those that give the majority the power to bully a minority. Those are the laws that this country always looks back on with shame. Those are the laws that expose the worst impulses in our elected leaders.

So, yes, for a moment this week I was embarrassed to be a Hoosier. But it is the Statehouse Republicans who voted for this travesty who should be embarrassed. The fact that they are not shows just how desperately their party needs a new generation of leaders.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.