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Back From Session Empty-Handed, LGBT Rights Groups Set Sights On 2017

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Indiana groups pushing for LGBT rights say the path forward to securing those rights next year is educating lawmakers.  LGBT rights advocates discussed Tuesday what they have in store after LGBT rights legislation died before getting a vote on either chamber floor this session.

Despite failure at the General Assembly, local communities, including, most recently, Evansville and Kokomo, continue to enact their own anti-discrimination ordinances. 

LGBT rights group Freedom Indiana’s Chris Paulsen says her organization will continue to support communities that want to move forward on protecting LGBT Hoosiers.

“We’ll be available to help with resources,” Paulson says. “We’d like it to be a local effort.  We want people in the community to be heard and that’s why you saw, in Kokomo, it was just people of Kokomo speaking.”

Groups on the other side of the issue haven’t had much recent success stopping local ordinances.  But they have fueled victories at the ballot box for state lawmakers.  Some leading LGBT rights groups can’t legally do that sort of work.  But Indiana Competes’ Peter Hanscom says that doesn’t mean individual LGBT advocates aren’t working on voter outreach.

“Folks are smart enough to connect the dots to realize, these are the people who get to vote on if I get civil rights or not, so I’m going to pay attention,” Hanscom says.

Paulsen says state lawmakers – mostly Republicans, so far – have reached out to her since session ended, seeking to learn more about LGBT rights.  

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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