Middle American bigotry is busted.  The governor of Indiana is caving in to immense pressure from social activists and corporate CEOs, and asking state lawmakers to “fix” a supposed religious freedom law that critics rightly said took the brakes off of discrimination against the LGBT community. 

At a news conference on Tuesday morning, conservative republican Gov. Mike Pence denied that that “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” he signed last week allowed businesses to refuse service to Gays and Lesbians.  Pence said he “was proud to sign” the bill, but that he believes “it would be appropriate to make it clear that this law does not make it give business a right to deny services to anyone”.

But legislative leaders from his own republican did confirm that it is exactly what the legislation intends.  Pence tried to compare it to religious liberty laws in other states, but all of those states had separate legislation banning discrimination – Indiana does not.

The backlash to the law has been swift and heavy.  Corporate leaders including Apple CEO Tim Cook bashed the legislation, and prominent businesses started to put off plans in Indiana.  Activists and journalists called for the lucrative NCAA college basketball tournament to be moved out of Indianapolis.  Musicians and performers started to cancel gigs, organizations cancelled conferences.  The City of Indianapolis quickly denounced the bogus religious freedom law and issued an executive order to help ensure that gays and lesbians are still protected from discrimination in the city.  Officials from around the country condemned Pence’s “bigotry”.

“Discrimination is wrong,” said Mayor Greg Ballard, a republican who split with his state’s dominant political party over the law, “And I hope that message is being heard loud and clear at our Statehouse.”

Over the weekend, Pence was left sputtering on a Sunday political talk show when confronted with direct questions about how the law might be used against gay people in a nationally televised interview.  All along, Pence claimed that anti-gay discrimination would not be allowed. 

And the simple fact is, there is no documented or even alleged case of anyone in the state of Indiana being discriminated against because of his or her religion.  The law was simply an act of pandering to the religious right, which has the sads because Marriage Equality keeps getting approved by US courts.  But when "leaders" and legislators stay in their own bubble and grant interviews only to the fawning Murdoch media, they find out that the rest of the country has moved on, and their social goals have already been rejected.