Indiana channels its inner San Francisco

When Governor Mike Pence of Indiana signed the state’s religious freedom bill last week, the idea was to protect businesses like Memories Pizza in the little town of Walkerton.

“If a gay couple was to come in, say if they wanted us to provide them pizzas for a wedding, we would have to say no,” said Crystal O’Connor, whose family runs the business. “We’re not discriminating against anyone. It’s just that’s our belief. And everyone has a right to believe anything.”

O’Connor said she would never turn away anyone for being gay. It’s just that, as a Christian, she couldn’t bring herself to cater a gay wedding.

Even though she’d never actually been asked to cater a gay wedding, thousands of people immediately went on Yelp.com to post often nasty and even threatening comments, along with one-star ratings to the point Memories Pizz had to close temporarily.

It all went viral, a bunch of worried corporations got on board. On Thursday, as if by magic, the Legislature presented the governor with a revised bill that is still called the Religious Freedom Act, except now it expressly states that religion may not be used by any private business as an excuse for refusing to serve someone on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

So a law that was intended to allow businesses to invoke religion as a defense in a lawsuit, now expressly states they cannot use religion as a defense in any lawsuit over a gay wedding, among other things.

Just one little catch: under the state’s civil rights law there would be no such lawsuit because in Indiana, gay people can’t file lawsuits for discrimination.

So Memories Pizza can still say refuse to cater a gay wedding. Especially since a Go Fund Me page started by their supporters, in a little over a day, has raised about half a million dollars.

In America’s digital clickocracy, the same social media that closes you down can, at the same time, make you rich.