In the summer of 2011, Mike Pence came to The Herald-Times to talk about why he wanted to leave Congress and run for governor of Indiana.
His focus then was strikingly similar to the main points in this year’s State of the State address. He said four-plus years ago he would focus on good jobs, great schools, safe streets and strong families. In his speech in January, he added infrastructure to the list and didn’t cite strong families, though his positions on GLBT rights give insight into how he defines the words strong and families when used together.
He said something else that day nearly five years ago that explains clearly why he will do everything he can to protect what he believes to be religious liberty, even if it denies to many men and women rights that are available to people who follow his religious doctrine. He stressed he’s a Christian, conservative and Republican in that order.
That set of priorities is admirable in Mr. Pence, private citizen. He can follow a “hate-the-sin-and-love-the-sinner” philosophy all he wants. As a private citizen.
But as governor of the state, that oft-repeated Christian phrase turns into hate the sin, discriminate against the sinner — or in this case, the person he believes to be the sinner. Private belief is not always appropriate public policy, and the melding of the two has been on display plenty in Indiana over the past 12 months.
During his visit to the newspaper back then, he said clearly that he favored a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage; said he’s pro-life “and I don’t apologize for it”; and said he opposes providing tax money to organizations that perform abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. Voters knew where he stood on these issues and none of his actions in office should come as much of a surprise.
He also said that day he’s a fan of Bloomington and would welcome debates on those and other issues.
There’s one more thing he said that day that’s worth recalling. He said: “People who know me know I don’t generally divide things.”
I can’t say I know the governor. He doesn’t spend much time in Bloomington, and I can’t recall interviewing him since he was a candidate. But his actions on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act divided the state a year ago, and attempts last week to bridge that divide failed in the Indiana Senate. A bill that would have added gay, lesbian and bisexual Hoosiers to those protected from some key areas of discrimination died before it could be voted upon.
The bill wasn’t perfect. It did not include any protections for transgender people and carved out too many exemptions. State Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, and the author of Senate Bill 344, said in an interview Friday he tried to do a lot of bargaining with 27 amendments added to the original bill to construct something palatable enough to a majority of lawmakers to attain some progress on the human rights issue this year. But, he said, too many people couldn’t find common ground between civil rights and religious liberties arguments to have enough votes to pass the Senate. He also suggested the most intractable opposition came from the far right, which apparently did not want any protections afforded GLBT citizens.
It’s unfortunate on such a big issue senators were not forced to go on the record on a bill that, flawed as it was, would have reduced the number of Hoosiers who do not have full rights in the workplace, housing or public accommodation — and that Gov. Pence did not have to either sign or veto a bill expanding rights for men and women some of his staunchest supporters don’t believe deserve equality.