More than 1,000 people gathered in front of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis Saturday to take part in the #AllAreWelcome rally to oppose the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed March 26 by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
Ryan Walstrom, a freshman telecommunications major, was one of the Ball State students to travel to the rally.
“I think it really speaks about the state,” Walstrom said. “A rally like this really shows strong opposition. This is a backwards step in social views.”
STORIFY: Hoosiers protest #RFRA at Indiana Statehouse
Throughout the rally, chants of “this is what democracy looks like,” “Pence must go” and “fix the bill” were repeated as leaders encouraged the crowd to speak out.
Jeff Cummings, an Indianapolis business owner, attended the rally holding a sign saying "Pitch Pence over the fence."
He said as a vice president for a multinational company, he embraces diversity for his company and employees and felt the need to attend the rally.
“I don’t think the government realized what they have done,” Cummings said. “All the work we have done to make the state attractive is gone. This is the first time in my life I say I’m not proud to be a Hoosier.”
A big push at the rally was encouraging young people to vote. Indiana had the lowest voter turnout in the 2014 elections, with only 28.8 percent of registered voters showing up, according to electproject.org.
One of the speakers at the rally and president of GEI Inc., JJ Gufreda, said the biggest thing people could do to change things is to step in and make their opinion known and to vote.
“All of you young people … get involved,” she said. “Vote my generation out and get everyone who voted for this bill out.”
Chelsea Cooke, an Indianapolis resident, came to the rally with her wife.
“Me and my wife feel threatened by the bill and are scared our son won't be able to get health care,” Cooke said. “We came so Pence can know the state of Indiana is disgruntled by this and that it affects all of our lives.”
She said the law went against the “Hoosier hospitality” Indiana is known for.
Indiana now joins 19 other states that have similar laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
Other participants in the rally brought their children and grandchildren to expose them to issues like this early on.
Bill Perry, an Indianapolis resident, said he thought the law was sinful and is something that’s going to be a black mark for Indiana.
“This is taking us back about 60 years,” Perry said. “This is starting discrimination, this is giving [businesses] a way to discriminate against people.”
Perry said this law will take businesses that are for diversity out of Indiana, which is something that is already starting to happen. Gen Con LLC already threatened to move their 2017 convention, Angie’s List put a hold on their expansion into Indianapolis and Salesforce is boycotting Indiana.
“Indiana has come so far, and now to see this happen, … it’s ridiculous,” Perry said.
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