Hoosier Hate & Other Tall Tales

This blog has taken a few different forms over the course of it's intermittent life, but I always seem to come back to I May Be from Indiana, but I'm Not an Idiot, which is something I said to someone after seeing their reaction to me saying where I was from.  It is something I have dealt with for 38 years, and when Indiana only seems to make the national news when it is being exceptionally backwards, various sports teams winning (or beating the hell out of spectators), or the inevitable tornado hitting a trailer park, I don't really blame people for having a low opinion of the Hoosier State.

We are considered the middle finger of the Bible Belt, which is certainly pretty apropos. We are a state of incongruities that represent some of the best and worst traits of the North and South.  I often joke that anything south of Monument Circle is Kentucky, and it really isn't too far from the truth.  The further south you go, the thicker the twang becomes.  The further north you go the more you move into the big city territory of The Region, otherwise known as the greater Chicagoland area. Indianapolis is a mixture of it all: big city, small town, liberal, conservative, urban, country.

As a lifelong resident of Indiana, I feel I understand the state pretty well.  I grew up outside of Logansport, which is around 17,000, but I lived in the country.  I went to a school that had 700+ people in it grades 7-12, which was actually more people than the very small town of Walton, where it was located.  I never felt like I fit in, and when I was 18, I went off to college at Butler University.  I never looked back.  I had opportunities to move out to Washington DC, but I chose to stay.  While I may regret that a little bit, I do not regret the life I have made here. I love Indiana and Indianapolis, in spite of how much some of the people here try my patience.

The latest example of "exceptionally backwards" notoriety happens to be the back alley way the House Joint Resolution - 6 (HJR-6) has been handled.  This is a proposed amendment to the state constitution that will not only set marriage to one man and one woman, but it will also limit the ability of future legislatures to allow civil unions for not only LGBT but also the straight community.  This has implications on businesses being able to offer partner benefits.  I will save digging into the guts of that for a different post, but as you can imagine, the battle lines have been drawn between pretty much where you would expect: conservative bible beaters vs. a coalition of higher education, business, and community organizations.

The bill first went to the House Judiciary Committee, where it appeared to be heading for defeat or deadlock.  So, Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, after saying how much this wasn't a priority, moved it to a different, more conservative committee.  It passed on Wednesday, and now it will be voted on by the whole House on Monday.  While it is good to be positive and hope that it will not pass out of the House and Senate and go to referendum, I am pretty positive it will sail through.  Republicans have super-majorities in both houses, but there is still a chance the language could be amended, which would reset the clock to 2016.

So, what happens if it goes to a referendum?  Well, there is a going to be an epic battle between the conservative groups and Freedom Indiana, which is the coalition trying to defeat it.  Indiana will be seen as sort of the last stand in the Marriage Equality war, even though the tide is decidedly turning towards full equality for the LGBT community.  It will be ugly.  However, I truly believe that Hoosiers will reject the amendment, even though it is an off year election, which traditionally have very low turnouts.  People are angry about how the bill was handled in the House - Democrats and Republicans, alike.  People are more active, politically, than I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  I believe that many people who have never voted before in their lives will come out and vote this time, because it matters to them personally.  We might actually see change at the ballot box, which is something this Poli Sci major has only had the opportunity to witness when President Obama carried Indiana in 2008, the first time a Democrat has carried the state since LBJ.  I don't think it is a lost cause, at all.  

While Indiana may ultimately be a conservative state, it has an independent, almost libertarian, streak to it, where Hoosiers do not like being told what to do.  They may appear to be overly simple to outsiders, but I have seen way too many with the attitude of "live and let live" to allow the abject hate of the vocal "moral majority" be the face of the true people of this state.  Needless to say, it will take a gigantic voter registration and voter turnout push, but if my gut feeling is correct, we will win this war.   I can think of no greater exclamation point to this saga, no better way to show the rest of this country that Indiana is not at all what they thought.  We will send a message to the rest of the country that:  we may be from Indiana, but we are not idiots!