Indiana Senate ignores business leaders, passes gay marriage ban

Ignoring pleas from the heads of five of Indiana's largest companies, the Indiana Senate passed a resolution March 30 that calls for an amendment to the Indiana Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.

The vote was 40-10, with all "No" votes coming from Democratic senators. The resolution, House Joint Resolution 6, has already passed the Indiana House. To become law, both the House and Senate must pass the resolution again in 2013 or 2014 and then go before Indiana voters in a referendum.

"If HJR-6 is enacted, it will mark the beginning of the end of any opportunity for LGBT residents of Indiana to truly experience equal rights," Indiana Equality said in a statement. "This proposal is not only about same-gender marriage, but also about severely restricting future rights of all LGBT Hoosiers. The wording of this proposed constitutional amendment will prohibit any opportunity of civil unions, partnership tax incentives and many other recognition rights."

Business leaders said the law's vagueness is one reason they oppose the amendment. Leaders from Cummins and Eli Lilly, both based in Indiana, testified in Senate hearings on the marriage ban that it would limit their ability to attract top talent and could prohibit them from offering domestic partner benefits such as health insurance. The CEOs of Lilly, Cummins and WellPoint, Simon Property Group and Emmis Communications wrote a joint op-ed March 15 in the state's leading newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, summing up their opposition.

"Discrimination is bad in any form," the corporate leaders said. "When it is expressed in the form of public policy, it not only makes for bad policy, but it makes for bad business. Our companies oppose HJR 6 and believe it works against Indiana's stated desire to broaden its appeal to attract new business to the state."

A Cummins VP, in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the amendment affects the company's global competitiveness and could lead to it expanding outside Indiana, rather than in the Hoosier State. That drew the ire of anti-gay activists, including the head of the National Organization for Marriage, which has led efforts to stifle marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

"The small number of very liberal northeastern states who have embraced gay marriage tend to have high per capita incomes in part because job growth is so low that young families move out of state - most likely to a state with a marriage amendment and more robust economic growth," NOM's Brian Brown said in a statement.

Brown offered no data to explain how he reached those conclusions, but a quick look at 2010 census data shows that Baltimore is the only major city in the Northeastern United States that experienced a population decline between 2000 and 2010. In fact, Boston, the largest city in the first state to legalize marriage for gays and lesbians, experienced a population surge from 2000-2010 that took it over 600,000 residents for the first time since the 1970s.

Indiana Equality President Rick Sutton fired off a response defending Cummins' statements on the marriage ban.

"It was stunning, honest testimony," Sutton said. "Rather than hearing the first-hand business opinion for what it was worth, proponents of constitutional discrimination denounced Cummins. It was typical 'Attack the Messenger' politics: Ugly, unfounded and illogical."

Indiana Equality urged its supporters to redouble their efforts to educate friends and family members and get them to vote; the group also pledged support for legislators who opposed the amendment.

Indiana already has a law on the books banning gays and lesbians from marrying, but it was passed without amending the state's constitution.