After nearly five hours of testimony Wednesday, a Senate panel approved a bill to protect lesbian, gay and bisexual Hoosiers from discrimination – but not the transgender community. Very few of the more than two dozen people who testified on either side of the debate support the measure in its current form, and Senate Republican Leader David Long admits its fate is uncertain.
The House Public Policy Committee voted down legislation legalizing Sunday alcohol sales. It's the second consecutive year a bill with this aim failed to advance beyond the House.
A Senate committee approved a bill to add hate crimes language to state law. The proposed measure would allow judges to impose harsher sentences based on a person's motivation for committing a crime – specifically, if they committed a crime with the intent to harm or intimidate someone based on that person's race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, or transgender status.
And the House approved a bill allowing access to police body camera footage under the public records law. Critics of the measure decry a provision requiring the public and the press to prove to a judge why the footage should be released – rather than making the police prove why it should remain sealed.