Indiana’s ‘religious freedom’ law is the real March Madness

The NCAA’s annual men’s basketball tournament will conclude this weekend in Indianapolis. And this March, the madness typically found on the basketball court during this three-week tournament has been upstaged by the absurdity found on the floor of Indiana’s legislature.

Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed and signed into law last week, is yet one more insidious attempt by a fringe element to circumvent established, standing law in order to advance an agenda of exclusion. Under the cloak of “religious freedom,” religious conservatives in Indiana have officially endorsed a system of legalized discrimination against gays and lesbians. That such a law could pass in the year 2015, after all the progress that has been made to advance the freedom and lifestyle of LGBT individuals, is not only alarming; it is disheartening.

{mosads}There are both logical and an emotional disconnects between the law passed in Indiana and evolving American values.

The logical disconnect between the Indiana law and the Constitution’s First Amendment — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … ” — is that the Indiana law is purporting to defend the second part of that clause while infringing on the first. That “wall of separation between church and state” that Thomas Jefferson argued was so critical to a vibrant nation has been reduced to rubble. Indiana lawmakers have afforded business owners legal cover to refuse service to gays and lesbians.

The emotional disconnect between the Indiana law and the majority of America is that the momentum of social tolerance in this country is surging in the opposite direction of these fringe lawmakers. Seventy-one percent of people in the United States live in a state where marriage equality exists. According to Gallup, 2011 was the first year in U.S. history where more Americans supported the legalization of same-sex marriage than didn’t. History will judge those politicians who find themselves on the wrong side of this momentum, much like it has judged those politicians who opposed civil rights and the legislation that advanced that movement. The perplexing aspect of this emotional disconnect is that today’s politicians have history as a guide. Fighting the rising tide of tolerance and suffocating a Constitution that breathes the air of freedom and liberty will always put you on the wrong side of history.

Several businesses and organizations have come out in firm opposition to the new Indiana law. One of those organizations is the NCAA. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the NCAA has a lease on its headquarters building until 2060 and pays one dollar in rent a year. The NCAA is also hosting its men’s basketball Final Four in Indianapolis this coming weekend, and is scheduled to host its women’s basketball Final Four there next year.

“The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement last week. “We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week’s men’s Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill.”

The NCAA has been a lightning rod for critics over the last several years — for an archaic view of amateurism, its overreach in the Penn State case and the bungling of its Miami athletics investigation, to name a few of the reasons why.

The NCAA does, however, have a history of taking meaningful stances on social issues. Just last year, the organization voiced opposition to a proposed amendment to the Indiana Constitution that attempted to define marriage as only being between a man and a woman. The NCAA has often used its power and money to promote a message of tolerance.

And yet there has not been a more poignant moment in the organization’s 100-year history to condemn intolerance. The timing is kismet. The NCAA will be center stage this weekend, hosting its most popular event in a state that just passed an outrageously homophobic law. This particular March madness can’t just be about issuing statements; it has to be about making one.

Spatola is a West Point graduate and former captain in the U.S. Army. He currently serves as a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports and SiriusXM radio.