Governor Pence says he's reached no conclusions about legislation to extend civil rights protections to gays and lesbians.
Both parties in the Senate have introduced civil rights bills.
Democrats' bill simply adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.
Pence echoes Senate Republicans, who say protection needs to be paired with safeguards for religious beliefs, but says he's still studying the issue, including the Republican bill which seeks to write both protections into state law.
Pence says Indiana needs to both reject discrimination and respect what he calls people’s constitutionally guaranteed right of conscience.
“Sorting those things out, seeing if you can reconcile those two great principles continues to be our focus and we’ll continue to work through that issue in the days ahead,” Pence says.
The Republican bill authored by Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) includes the so-called "four words and a comma" addition favored by Democrats, but includes carve-outs for religious organizations and wedding-related businesses with fewer than four employees.
The bill also supersedes local human rights ordinances, and spells out definitions for who qualifies as "transgender" under the law.
The 10-week legislative session begins Jan. 5.
“We just continue to study that issue and continue to listen to all sides,” Pence says. “[There’s a] lot of time between now and when the session starts. We’ll just continue to respectfully consider all sides.”
