Civil rights might be amended

An expansion of civil rights protections will be the topic at noon today at the Monroe County Courthouse to announce the statewide initiative.\nThe Indiana Equality initiative seeks to amend the state's civil rights laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity.\nThe Bloomington Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the IU Commission on Multicultural Understanding and the IU Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Association are just a few of the groups taking part in the press conference. \nBill Shipton, deputy chair of the IU Commission on Multicultural Understanding, said he and chair Pam Freeman both plan to be there, and the commission supports it.\nThe supporters of this initiative are seeking to improve fairness in jobs and improve the economy through this amendment.\n"Our main goal is to work with the legislature to amend civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender equality," said Kim Davis, president of the IU GLBT Alumni Association. "It's definitely a good thing to support," she said.\nAn initiative currently working its way through the legislature is the Indiana Senate Bill No. 534, which would extend anti-discrimination statutes to include prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation throughout the Indiana Code. \nThe bill, authored by Sen. Glenn Howard of Indianapolis, was read for the first time and referred to the Committee on Criminal, Civil and Public Policy on Jan. 23. If passed, the bill would add the words "sexual orientation" to race, religion, color, national origin, sex and age in the civil rights laws of Indiana.\nHoward said he came up with the bill when he heard of a group of people being kicked out of an apartment complex because of their sexual orientation and then finding out it was supported by law.\n"It's not fair that a person of their persuasion gets singled out," he said. "They can't get married and can get kicked out of apartments.\n"Discriminating someone based on race, creed, or color; that's wrong," Howard said.