Hoosiers on both sides of the LGBT rights debate got their say before a panel of lawmakers Tuesday.
For those who've followed Indiana's LGBT rights debate over the last year and a half, Tuesday's hearing yielded nothing new. Many who testified have testified before.
Study committee leaders did not indicate whether the committee will produce a legislative recommendation on LGBT rights ahead of next session.
In Favor of LGBT Protections
Supporting LGBT rights were faith leaders, LGBT Hoosiers and their families, and business leaders.
"We shouldn't limit other people's right to exist freely in our society because someone might do wrong."
Lane Bannister is a trans Hoosier who works with LGBT youth at the Indiana Youth Group. He says he's lost too many people in his community – which sports a suicide rate four times higher than the straight population.
"And my heart breaks for the struggles that my youth face daily," Bannister says. "You have the power to protect them and you can show them that Indiana cares for them and that they belong here."
Korvin Bothwell is a trans Hoosier. He says he's heard the "bathroom issue" concerns but thinks they're misguided:
"We shouldn't limit other people's right to exist freely in our society because someone might do wrong," Bothwell says.
Opposing LGBT Protections
On the other side were mostly individuals, many professing a religious background. Janet Smith wonders why the LGBT community, which makes up about three percent of the population, should get what she calls "special privileges:"
"My daughter – she's not comfortable seeing the opposite sex organ on somebody in the same bathroom as her."
"When the other 97 percent of us have to kowtow and do everything that they tell us to do," Smith says.
Those who spoke in opposition to LGBT anti-discrimination protections focused mostly on the so-called "bathroom issue" – that is, the purported risk that an LGBT rights law will make it easier for predators to gain access to children in bathrooms.
Jeremy Hancock says he testified because he's a concerned parent:
"My daughter – she's not comfortable seeing the opposite sex organ on somebody in the same bathroom as her," Hancock says.
Lawmakers
Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, authored legislation last session that aimed to enact civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers. His efforts failed to yield even a floor vote in the Senate.
Heading into the study committee, he said he hoped to hear attempts at compromise from both sides of the debate. Following the hearing, Holdman expressed disappointment.
"Nobody came forward today to offer that," Holdman says. "I think everybody knew that's going to have to be the outcome but I didn't see that happening today."
Committee co-chair Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, says a path forward on LGBT rights is complicated by outside factors.
"I think each and every one of these issues is now working its way through the federal courts so we need to be aware of that and see how those cases make progress," Steuerwald says.
Steuerwald says he doesn't know yet whether the committee will produce a legislative recommendation on LGBT rights – but says other committee members expressed a desire to see how court proceedings play out.
