Indiana
Governor Mike Pence signed into law on Thursday a measure that grants
business owners the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians all in the
name of “religious freedom,” and now a major state investor is shutting
down the money tap.
While
the law’s supporters are surely patting themselves on the back and
smoking each others’ cigars, people like billionaire
CEO of Salesforce.com and philanthropist Marc Benioff have a decidedly different
take.
In
a statement on Facebook, Benioff announced his decision to “dramatically reduce”
his company’s investment in the state.
He
wrote:
We are forced to dramatically reduce our investment in Indiana based on our employee’s & customer’s outrage over the Religious Freedom Bill.
At
a time when our nation is more polarized than ever, these so-called
religious freedom bills only serve to legitimize our differences as
part of the official discourse.
And
as Benioff and hopefully more have and will prove, the trend is bad for
business.
Indianapolis
mayor Greg Ballard was one of many in the state to distance himself from
the law. He said:
“I don’t believe this legislation truly represents our state or our capital city. Indianapolis strives to be a welcoming place that attracts businesses, conventions, visitors and residents.”
Right
now, at least ten states including Indiana are pushing through new or stronger
religious freedom measures, largely seen as a reaction to the U.S. Supreme
Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision.
If
you want to see how shaky the Republican argument is, here’s presidential
hopeful Jeb Bush doing his best to lay out a case for religious freedom
legislature in Georgia:
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