Scramble to revise US ‘anti-gay’ laws

Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana are scrambling to revise religious objection measures as Republican governors in both states try to quell a growing backlash from businesses and other critics who have called the laws anti-gay.

Neither the Indiana nor Arkansas law specifically mentions gay or lesbian people, but opponents are concerned that the language contained in them could offer a legal defence to businesses and other institutions that refuse to serve gay people, such as caterers, florists, or photographers with religious objections to same-sex marriage.

A day after Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson called on the legislature to change the measure that he had once said he would sign into law, House leaders hoped to give final approval quickly to a bill to address his concerns. Legislative leaders in Indiana were also working on efforts to change that state’s similar recently enacted law.