article_snippet.sent: Two states at the center of gay rights protests over laws designed to 'uphold religious freedom' engaged in hurried climbdowns yesterday, with both approving alterations to legislation that critics said legalized discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. '
article_snippet.sent: Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana hoped that by amending Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana states' measures Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana would quiet the national uproar over new religious objections that opponents say are designed to offer a legal defense for anti-gay discrimination . '
article_snippet.sent: Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana on Thursday added anti-discrimination safeguards to the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act . '
article_snippet.sent: I think anti-discrimination safeguards to the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s sending the right signal, the way this has been resolved, to the world and the country that Arkansas understands the diversity of our culture and workforce but also the importance of balancing that with our sincerely held religious convictions,' Hutchinson said.
article_snippet.sent: The two, GOP-controlled states were in a frenzy this week to quell national outrage over legislation meant to satisfy evangelicals who do not believe GOP-controlled states should be compelled by the government to provide goods and services to certain customers if doing so would violate GOP-controlled states religious convictions.
article_snippet.sent: After gay rights activists, sympathetic businesses and celebrities thrust the measures into the national spotlight, GOP-controlled states found sympathetic businesses and celebrities in the cross-hairs, and even Republican lawmakers began to distance even Republican lawmakers from the laws as written.
article_snippet.sent: Republican leaders in the Hoosier State conceded this week to critics arguing that the Hoosier State's law, signed into effect by Governor Mike Pence a week ago today, inadvertently left room for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. '
article_snippet.sent: Indiana, the first of the two states to pass the offending religious liberty legislation, saw a fierce backlash over the weekend and early this week that included thousands of protesters descending on the state Capitol and a prominent local business cancelling a planned $40 million expansion of the state Capitol headquarters after Pence formally approved the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act.