--- title: "As “Religious Freedom” Law Passes, Controversy Heats Up in Indiana" id: "27760" type: "post" slug: "as-religious-freedom-law-passes-controversy-heats-up-in-indiana" published_at: "2015-03-27T20:39:01+00:00" modified_at: "2026-03-16T13:44:06+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/03/27/as-religious-freedom-law-passes-controversy-heats-up-in-indiana/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/03/27/as-religious-freedom-law-passes-controversy-heats-up-in-indiana.md" excerpt: "Following in the footsteps of Gen Con, the NCAA—which is hosting the Final Four in Indianapolis next month—has spoken out about a controversial Indiana state law that could allow businesses to deny services to the LGBT community on religious freedom..." taxonomy_category: - "Advocacy" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "discrimination" - "EU law" - "Meetings" - "religious freedom" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Association CEO / Executive Director" - "C-Level" - "Executive Team" - "For-Profit CEO / President / Owner / Partner" taxonomy_persona: - "Executive Leadership" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » As “Religious Freedom” Law Passes, Controversy Heats Up in Indiana In the midst of March Madness, the NCAA is facing a big controversy that threatens to hang a shadow over the association’s biggest sporting event of the year. On Thursday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a controversial bill that critics say would allow businesses to discriminate against patrons on religious freedom grounds. Pence, who supported the bill, defended his decision. “This bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination I would have vetoed it,” Pence said [in a press conference covered by The Indianapolis Star (opens in a new tab)](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/25/gov-mike-pence-sign-religious-freedom-bill-thursday/70448858/) . Pence signed the bill despite public outcry and [suggestions by the organizers of popular events like Gen Con](http://associationsnow.com/2015/03/gen-con-considers-leaving-indianapolis-over-religious-freedom-bill/) that the new law could affect their future relationship with the state. On Thursday, the NCAA joined Gen Con in its concerns, with the association’s president, Mark Emmert, emphasizing that the group is “deeply committed” to inclusion efforts. “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees,” [Emmert said in a news release (opens in a new tab)](http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/statement-indiana-religious-freedom-bill) . “We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week’s Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill. Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce.” The issue could threaten the state’s future relationship with the association, as the NCAA’s national office [is in Indianapolis (opens in a new tab)](http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/national-office) . The National Football League, which also has significant ties to Indiana, [has yet to comment on the issue (opens in a new tab)](http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/27/nfl-still-not-talking-about-indiana-law/) . ### An Issue That’s Heating Up If the NCAA decided, for whatever reason, to curtail its relationship with the state over the issue, it wouldn’t be the first to do so. That honor would go to the B2B company Salesforce. > Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination. [http://t.co/SvTwyCHxvE (opens in a new tab)](http://t.co/SvTwyCHxvE) > > — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) [March 26, 2015 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/Benioff/status/581108959337136129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) On Thursday, the company’s CEO, Mark Benioff, announced that Salesforce would cancel all of its programs in the state of Indiana—a significant move, considering that one of its highest profile acquisitions, [the email marketing platform ExactTarget (opens in a new tab)](http://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2013/06/130604.jsp) , is based in Indianapolis. “We’ve made significant investments in Indiana. We run major marketing events and conferences there. We’re a major source of income and revenue to the state of Indiana, but we simply cannot support this kind of legislation,” [Benioff told Re/Code on Thursday (opens in a new tab)](http://recode.net/2015/03/26/salesforce-ceo-benioff-takes-stand-against-indiana-anti-gay-law/) . The city of San Francisco [similarly threatened a boycott of Indiana (opens in a new tab)](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/27/san-francisco-joins-planning-boycott-indiana/70531518/) over the law, as has [the local business social network Yelp (opens in a new tab)](http://officialblog.yelp.com/2015/03/an-open-letter-to-states-considering-imposing-discrimination-laws.html) . Looking beyond Indiana’s borders, similar laws are rising in prominence. Already, 19 other states have these kinds of laws on the books, and [other states are considering such bills in the future (opens in a new tab)](http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/religious-freedom-bill-becomes-law-indiana) . But the backlash in Indiana could be having an impact. On Thursday, “religious liberty” legislation being debated in a Georgia House committee [was tabled (opens in a new tab)](http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/georgia-house-committee-guts-religious-liberty-bil/nkgGs/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajcpremium#3315ad28.3913704.735683) after language that would protect against “discrimination on any ground prohibited by federal, state, or local law” was added to the bill. (via the NCAA’s Facebook page) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. 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