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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe top Republican lawmaker in the Indiana House isn't thrilled with the Senate's compromise bill on gay rights and religious rights.
A day after a Senate committee advanced a bill that would exclude transgender people from a gay rights non-discrimination bill, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Thursday that he has “yet to talk to someone who thinks the bill is a good idea.”
The bill, which also carves out religious exemptions for clergy, adoption agencies and certain not-for-profits, narrowly passed the committee after being decried by Democrats.
Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said the bill—Senate Bill 344—faces an uncertain future in the full Senate.
Bosma said he preferred a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate in employment and housing, and leave the question of public accommodations including what to do about wedding-related businesses, for another time. That was the approach Utah legislators took on the issue of balancing religious rights and LGBT rights.
“I wish we had a better compromise to work from,” Bosma said. “Advocates on all sides seem to be opposed to it with very few exceptions.”
Editor's note: The headline of this story was changed on Jan. 29 to reflect Bosma's feelings about the bill, rather than his impression of what other legislators thought,
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