INDIANAPOLIS - At the halfway point of the 2019 legislative session, the hate crimes bill is still on everybody’s mind.
The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as House Speaker Brian Bosma held press conferences Tuesday to discuss how the session is going.
A couple weeks ago, the Senate passed a bill that does not include a list of specifically-protected characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender identity and race.
The current bill just adds the words “including bias” to Indiana code, and leaves it up to judges to interpret.
Republicans and Democrats differ on the importance of including specified characteristics.
"That list is an important statement as to where we are in the state of Indiana,” Senate Democratic leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said. “This idea that you leave somebody out or you favor certain people -- we all have a race, we all have a color, most of us have a religion or a belief not to have a religion."
Bosma said there are more concerns with the list other than the inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation.
"There are plenty of people in our caucus who believe we should take no action on this,” Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said. “It's not a necessity. It's not an issue in their community. It isn't just about those two categories (gender identity and sexual orientation). It's about whether there's a list and whether we have to take this action at all."
The hate crimes bill has progress further than at this point last year. It will now be heard by a House committee.
