Indiana recently passed a law that allows business to exercise freedom of religion. This law means they have the right to refuse services to a customer based on their own beliefs,  if there is a substantial burden on that owner’s religion. Ironically these are in other states, most are stricter than Indiana including North Carolina. Recently the North Carolina Legislation decided that a similar law would not move through state legislation. It is important to voters because they elect the politicians that promote these laws. This raises the question on how active people are in politics. By next election our current juniors and seniors will be voting in local and state elections. All voters should understand and know what’s going on now, who we are voting for a politician who represents our point of view of how government should be run. Voters not educating themselves on current civil issues will risk having politicians elected into office that won’t represent their opinions and beliefs.

We asked randomly selected students from Panther Creek High School if they were aware of the law and how they felt about it.. These opinions were anonymous due to the controversy of the topic. This topic has been covered on multiple cable news networks like Fox News and MSNBC. They have been reporting on the Indiana Religious Freedom law for weeks. Students were asked if they knew about the law. Surprisingly they had no idea that this law existed but if they did the students learned about the law in class. Many thought that the law did not apply to modern Americans with different backgrounds and religions.  The whole initiative behind this policy was to prevent businesses from being sued or be a business that discriminates against others. A majority of the students also felt that this law provided no “social benefit,” because it was a bad law in the first place. Students felt that it made this issue more complicated making the tension between religious citizens and citizens of the LGBT community more intense. This is viewed as a small win for the religious community because it gives them freedom of speech and expressing their rights as citizens and business owners.

Ironically, a student said that businesses should be treated as citizens and should have the right to express their opinions and belief. Another student contradicted that statement in a separate interview saying that there is so much religious diversity in America that it excludes many people who are also customers of these businesses. What people tend to forget is that people of the LGBT community are also religious and are active members in churches. Surveying students at Panther Creek proved that there is a knowledge about this law and it was almost passed in their own state.

Recently, there has been an amendment to the law that specifically says that the law is not meant to discriminate against other religions, sexual orientation, race, etc. This revision happened after outrage from the citizens of Indiana who wanted the law changed. Governor Mike Pence had strong stance on not changing it and even having a few politicians and big businesses to stand behind him to not change the law. With the constant ridicule from media and residents of Indiana protesting this law, Mike Pence was forced to hire a PR firm attorney Porter Novelli to revise the controversial law. This amendment is a win in the LGBT community because their voices had been finally heard.

It is important to be aware of local laws and your state representatives to prevent passing a similar law. In North Carolina there is a similar law but it is worded in a broader sense than Indiana’s law. Actually there is because its use of the word “substantial”. In Indiana’s law if it is “substantially burdening” your religious practices (Prevents you from practicing your religion) then the business has the right to not provide services to that customer. In North Carolina the law states if the services asked by the customers “burdens” their religion then the owner has the right to not provide their services to that customers. Without this single word this give businesses have more wiggle room to use this law. It makes it easier to deny services to customers who do not agree with the business owner’s religious beliefs. This has not been addressed and hasn’t been amended like Indiana. This law is not moving through North Carolina Legislative but if the media did not point out this law then there’s a possibility it could pass through. The public can have power to change the law but if we don’t pay attention to the laws that affect our community they can’t be changed.