Oh dear. How could all these people have misconstrued this wonderful legislation as intending discrimination against Teh Ghey? We will get right to work fixing it!
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) vowed Tuesday morning that the state would alter its religious liberties bill in the wake of a controversy that has drawn widespread criticism to the state, even as he defended the law and insisted it was being unfairly portrayed in the media.
Pence urged lawmakers to pass legislation making it clear “that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone.”
“We need to focus specifically on this perception that this creates some license to discriminate,” he said at a news conference in Indianapolis.
The change is a “clarification, but it’s also a fix,” Pence said of the update he hopes to see in the bill, which has been pilloried as anti-gay and has prompted business leaders and organizations across the country to question the law.
While Pence promised that the bill would be updated, he did not support a repeal of the legislation, nor did he say that language would be adding explicitly protecting gay or transgender people. He also spent a significant portion of the news conference defending the bill and criticizing the media, insisting that the current legislation did not allow for discrimination.
“This law has been smeared,” he said.
