More than two dozen protesters against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act circled the Monroe County Courthouse on Saturday afternoon.
“Stop the legalization of discrimination,” they ?chanted.
Emily Jones, an IU sophomore, was one of two people responsible for organizing the protest.
“In an overnight period, I sent out a mass email to businesses, raising awareness,” Jones said. “This really showed me that Facebook is such a powerful tool — we saw a snowball effect with how many people RSVP’d.”
Jones said she had seen the number of RSVPs jump from 30 to 150 within a day. Jones said the protest was short notice because she wanted it to take place the same day as the Indianapolis protest.
Doug Bauder, the office coordinator from the IU GLBT Student Services office, was also present at the protest.
Bauder said the RFRA was causing some parents concern over sending their children to IU.
“They’re ridiculous questions because it’s a ?ridiculous law,” Bauder said. “People are going to get hurt. Pence said people should read the law, not the paper, but I read the law, and it’s a confusing piece of legislation.”
Cathrine Johnson-Roehr stood with her friend and waited for the protest to begin. She said she received an email from someone she knew in California about a travel ban prohibiting people from taking publicly funded trips from San Francisco to Indiana.
“I don’t really want people to not come to Indiana,” Johnson-Roehr said.
The line of people snaked through downtown. Some drivers who saw the protest rolled down their windows and cheered. Others honked their horns and waved.
When the marchers hit the courthouse, Jones stood in front of everyone.
She and two others read off a poster a list of grievances attributable to the RFRA, including the theft of human rights of specific ?individuals.
“(The RFRA) is the protection of radical conservatives,” Jones said.
When she was finished, the crowd began chanting again: “Civil rights are everyone’s rights.”
Like Bauder and Johnson-Roehr, Seiffers said she wanted to march in the protest so other people could see that Indiana is not defined by legislation such as the RFRA and that not all Hoosiers support it.
“This is a way to show that the governor doesn’t speak for us,” Seiffers said.
