Freedom Indiana fails Hoosiers

Like many people across the state and the country, I was shocked and upset by the announcement that Indiana would once again attempt to restrict the rights of gay and lesbian individuals with the proposal of  House Joint Resolution 3.

As a gay man, I wanted to get involved.

I entrusted other bodies, those with more influence and power than I, to lead the charge.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid we put the wrong people in charge.

Freedom Indiana, the organization working to defeat H.J.R. 3, is failing Hoosiers both gay and straight.

H.J.R. 3 is a proposed amendment to the state constitution which would prevent the creation of civil unions and other statuses similar to marriage.

Here at IU, Freedom Indiana has enjoyed a bounty of progressive students who are willing to work phone banks, write letters and protest in front of the Statehouse to try to defeat H.J.R. 3.

Since IU President Michael McRobbie announced that IU was opposed to H.J.R. 3, our campus has all but become a safe haven for Freedom Indiana to operate.

Unfortunately, Freedom Indiana has both damaged itself and the chances of H.J.R. 3 being voted down by the Indiana House of Representatives.

It’s become pretty clear from talking with past volunteers of Freedom Indiana that they were overly demanding and rude when dealing with volunteers.

This kind of mismanagement makes Freedom Indiana appear to be nothing more than a group hell-bent on preventing a marriage amendment at any cost — even if it means alienating its own supporters.

Additionally, the organization itself apparently has no real understanding of the political structure of Indiana.

For a large portion of their campaign, Freedom Indiana funneled much of its funds and man-hours into lobbying the House Judiciary Committee.

The amendment needs to pass through a committee to go to the floor of the House, not specifically the Judiciary Committee.

Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, reassigned H.J.R. 3 to the Elections and Apportionment Committee.

It was a smart move on his part.

It essentially erased a large portion of Freedom Indiana’s efforts to try and lobby the members of that specific committee.

The amendment, of course, swiftly passed through the Elections and Apportionment Committee with no hiccups.

Freedom Indiana has been playing offense when they should have been playing defense since the amendment was first introduced.

Instead, they’ve been sending constituent letters to conservative representatives who truly have nothing to lose by voting for the amendment, but have everything to lose by voting against it.

Bosma is the Speaker of the Indiana House for one specific reason — he knows how politics work.

And he knows how they work better than Freedom Indiana does.

Freedom Indiana needs to see that the only potential way to stop the amendment is to target voters themselves.

People must vote no on H.J.R. 3 and vote their representatives, who prefer to put political ambition before basic human decency, out of office in November.

Relying on hopeful wishes and spam mail is simply not working.

And neither is Freedom Indiana.

­— ajguenth@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Andrew Guenther on Twitter @GuentherAndrew.