Indiana governor sends welcome letter to LGBT festival

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence sent a welcome letter this week to Indy Pride, an LGBT advocacy group that hosts annual festivities in Indianapolis. This year’s weeklong event, expected to draw 100,000 people, begins Saturday and will culminate in a parade June 13.

“On behalf of the people of Indiana, welcome to Indianapolis,” Pence wrote. “I am confident that those of you who traveled from out of state will come to know our famous hoosier hospitality.”

Although addressed to Indy Pride, the brief letter had a generic tone and did not specifically mention any of the planned LGBT festivities. Instead, Pence welcomed visitors to the city’s “museums, restaurants, theaters, historic landmarks, White River State Park, and the Indianapolis Zoo.”

“We hope you enjoy your stay,” he wrote.

According to The Indianapolis Star, Indy Pride had requested a welcome letter from Pence’s office months ago during the controversy over Indiana’s religious freedom bill. But Pence didn’t send out a letter until this week.

“Although the letter doesn’t specifically welcome LGBT to the city of Indianapolis, we appreciate that Gov. Pence issued us this letter,” Indy Pride president Chris Morehead told The Star.

Micah Clark, the executive director of American Family Association of Indiana, expressed his disappointment in an email to supporters today.

“Why Gov. Pence would welcome this at all, when not all events in Indianapolis receive a welcome letter from the governor, just boggles my mind, and it breaks my heart,” Clark wrote. “This is happening right when social conservatives and people of faith are already disgusted with the Republican Party, politics, and many politicians.”

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, also welcomed the pride festival in 2005, when he wrote, “This celebration seeks to foster understanding and acceptance of individuals without regard to gender, gender identity, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any of the differences that too often divide us.”

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican who opposed Indiana’s religious freedom law, has agreed to serve as grand marshal of this year’s parade.

Pence, a Republican who opposes same-sex marriage, faced an onslaught of political and economic pressure in March and April after he signed into a law a religious freedom bill that LGBT activists said business owners would use to refuse service to gay people. Pence and Indiana lawmakers ultimately relented, passing a legal “fix” to clarify that the law could not be used to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.