Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger is among 22 leaders in Indiana asking Statehouse legislators to add protected classes back to Senate Bill 12, which is a hate crimes bill being considered this session.
The Indiana Senate passed the bill last week, but removed specific protections for race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, disability national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation and age.
In the letter, which was also signed by David A Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, Bob Stutz, CEO for Salesforce and Bob Jones, chairman and CEO of Old National Bancorp, the leaders said “the bill in its current form is unacceptable, unenforceable and harmful to the state’s economy.”
The letter asks that the bill be strengthened by adding the classes back in the legislation to establish a strong bias crimes law in Indiana. Indiana is one of only five states without a hate crimes law.
Also signing the letter were David Simon, chairman of Simon Property Group, Gail K. Boudreaux, president and CEO of Anthem, Dennis Murphy, president and CEO of Indiana University Health, Jeff Smulyan, chairman of Emmis Communications Corp. and Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA.
For more on this story and a complete list of those who signed the letter, see Friday’s Republic.
