Angie’s List – $40 million Indiana Expansion on Hold

Someone should be keeping track of how much money the state of Indiana is losing in order to allow discrimination to exist within its borders.  One very interesting thing coming out of the passage of SB 101 is that we are learning how many companies are headquartered in Indiana.  The NCAA was one and now Angie's List.

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Since the year after its 1995 founding, Angie's List has been headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The $315 million corporation which lets users review local businesses, especially home improvement professionals, has been planning a $40 million renovation of its own, moving its headquarters across town and adding 1000 new jobs over five years. – TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com

Angie's List Chief Executive Bill Oesterle stated "we are putting the 'Ford Building Project' on hold until we fully understand the implications of the Freedom Restoration Act on our employees, both current and future."  The project was set to break ground within days, converting an old Ford factory into office space for 1000 new employees.

Will Angie's List cancel or move on with the expansion?  It's on hold for now.  With a company like Angie's List that rates local businesses, is there something they could do to help the fight?  Should they move forward with the expansion and be a voice of reason?  Rate supportive companies and discriminatory ones?   Remember the days of walking along downtown streets and seeing a rainbow sticker in a storefront window and getting excited?  It made you happy as well as happy to give them your business over the next store that didn't have a sticker.  We might just be going back to that, but in addition to the stickers, maybe Angie's List could rate business based on their RFRA practices.

This RFRA Law will not go away quickly.  We may be in for a long fight and they could be a great asset to the fight and our community.

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8 thoughts on “Angie’s List – $40 million Indiana Expansion on Hold”

  1. DO THEY REALLY THINK WE ARE

    DO THEY REALLY THINK WE ARE JUST BOYCOTTING INDIANA? NO PEOPLE, WE WILL MOVE ONTO THE NEXT STATE WHEN WE ARE FINISHED IN INDIANA, WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THESE KINDS OF BILLS AND LAWS IN AMERICA ANYMORE, WHETHER THEY ARE OUT IN THE OPEN OR DISCRETELY HIDDEN, THEY WILL BE REMOVED! 

    George Takei "Friends, I'm excited to see the list of business, civil and cultural leaders who support â€ª#‎BoycottIndiana‬ growing. Charles Barkley has stated the NCAA should move the Final Four out of the state,Salesforce.com canceled all events and meetings there, Angieslist.com put a $40 million expansion in Indiana on hold, and the cities of Seattle and San Francisco have canceled all city employee travel to that state. Our message and collective efforts are taking hold. Only the continued threat of economic consequences can bring Gov. Pence and the legislators to their senses. This legislation was enacted, as lobbyists for the bill declared, as a direct result of marriage equality becoming law in Indiana after a federal suit. To those good Hoosiers fighting the good fight from within, we know you'll feel some pain, but we must maintain pressure from outside as well. Tonight, I say this to Governor Pence: There is a way out. Ask the state legislature to repeal the law. You say you'd like to "clarify" how the law affects LGBTs. But if you truly do not intend the law to discriminate, I challenge you to enact a statewide, comprehensive anti-discrimination bill protecting LGBT persons, similar to those already in place for race, religion, gender, national origin and other classes just like your sister state Illinois does. I suspect you will not do so, because your law was always aimed to harm LGBTs. But I hope you prove me wrong, and that you remove the venom from this terrible legislation."
    #BoycottIndiana

    Reply
    • good for you !!  all I can

      good for you !!  all I can say is they had better get their heads out of their butts and see what this law REALLY SAYS !!!!!  Nineteen other states have the very same law ….. ALL it does is protect those who don't want to PARTICIPATE  in gay events …. it does NOT discriminate against those who are ''gay'' !!!  and it doesn't allow discrimination against those who are ''gay'' it just protects those of us who aren't and don't agree to be forced to participate in their gay little events !!  THAT IS ALL !!!!!  NO DISCRIMINATION  against ''gays'' at all !!!!!   READ THE BILL, unlike the ones who pushed obamacare down our throats before they even read what was in it ….. !!!

      Reply
      • They are not the same law

        They are not the same law that Indiana enacted.  Also most of these other states have laws preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

        Reply
      • “Nineteen other states have

        "Nineteen other states have the very same law"

        -Wrong. Here's some reading for you from the Washington Post explaining your fallacy.

        The problem with this statement is that, well, it’s false. That becomes clear when you read and compare those tedious state statutes. If you do that, you will find that the Indiana statute has two features the federal RFRA — and most state RFRAs — do not.

        First, the Indiana law explicitly allows any for-profit business to assert a right to “the free exercise of religion.” The federal RFRA doesn’t contain such language, and neither does any of the state RFRAs except South Carolina’s; in fact, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, explicitly exclude for-profit businesses from the protection of their RFRAs.

        The new Indiana statute also contains this odd language: “A person whose exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened, by a violation of this chapter may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding, regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.” (My italics.) Neither the federal RFRA, nor 18 of the 19 state statutes cited by the Post, says anything like this; only the Texas RFRA, passed in 1999, contains similar language.

        Religion is a protected class, so why this law? Three leading anti-LGBT activists, penned this law Micah Clark, Curt Smith, and Eric Miller.

        And when you say "gay little events", you sound very ignorant.

        Reply
  2. Thank You,

    Thank You,

    It's been a long road, and we have a ways to go. Again thank you for standing up against those that would make many second class citizens.
     

    Reply
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  4. Angie´s list is a real

    Angie´s list is a real example of business people being sensible and compassionate, i would buy anything they sell just for the unconditional support they are showing 

    Reply

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