Indianapolis, In. — By a vote of 39 to 10 the Indiana Senate has passed hate crimes legislation that has no specific categories of victims.
Now it appears it will be up to the House to strengthen the bill. Governor Eric Holcomb along with business leaders already said publicly they will push to strengthen the bill.
“Unfortunately, what passed the Senate today does not meet the all-important criteria of a meaningful bias crimes law,” Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar said in a statement immediately after the vote. “The Indiana Chamber and its members will continue to work with all legislators to do just that. We agree with Gov. Holcomb that the current legislation does not even remove Indiana from the list of five states without a bias crimes statute.”
Senate Republicans removed specific protections from the bill earlier in the week and expect the bill to change in the House. That version included language that covered crimes motivated by race, religion, sex, gender identity, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation and age.
