Pro-LGBT rights groups set to address future plans

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Prominent voices in the Indiana LGBT rights debate will lay out their plans after lawmakers declined to act on gay civil rights protections during the recently adjourned legislative session.

Freedom Indiana and the business-backed group Indiana Competes are set to lay out an agenda during a news conference Tuesday.

Currently Indiana doesn't offer statewide protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation.

Both groups have been warning that inaction on the matter by Republican Gov. Mike Pence and the GOP-controlled Legislature will harm the state's ability to attract talent and business to the state.

The GOP-controlled Senate took up two bills addressing LGBT rights. But the proposals were killed amid fierce opposition from social conservatives.

Indiana faced a backlash last year after it passed a law allowing those who oppose gay rights for religious reasons to withhold services such as providing flowers or cakes for same-sex weddings, The Gayly reported last month. The law prompted an uproar that included calls to boycott the state. It was later revised, although the Legislature wanted to revisit the issue this year.

The backlash may have contributed to the loss of a dozen conventions costing Indiana some $60 million, the tourism group Visit Indy said in a report in January. 

 Indiana Competes, a coalition of several hundred state organizations and businesses said at the time,"Indiana's economic competitiveness and the Hoosier brand have potentially been compromised again."

Brian Slodysko of the Associated Press contributed to this story.

The Gayly- 3/15/2016 @ 10:06 AM CST