Governing Whom We Love Is Bad Faith and Bad Business

Governor Braun, I’m a Republican, and your “Nuclear Family Month” proclamation makes me sick. You grew up in a time when people who loved differently had to hide or risk having their lives destroyed. That world has changed, and Indiana is better for it. It is not your office’s place — or any government’s — to decree whose love is legitimate or to stamp one family structure as “God’s design.” That is the work of a pulpit, not a governor. This is the same instinct that led your own lieutenant governor to call Islam “a demonic death cult” and to say people deserve “permission to hate again.” You disagreed with Micah Beckwith before, over the three-fifths comments. Senator Deery had the spine to break with him on Islam. You know how to do the right thing here. Instead, you timed this to the first day of Pride Month to score points with the hard right. It’s also an economic risk. Talent, employers, and investment go where people feel welcome. When the state signals that some families don’t count, the companies recruiting the workforce Indiana needs take note — and so do the people deciding whether to build a life here. You’re trading the state’s competitiveness for a news cycle. This is not a Hoosier value, and I expected better. Shame on you for once again making Indiana a national embarrassment. A voting constituent