article_snippet.sent: Two states at the center of gay rights protests over laws designed to 'uphold religious freedom' are engaging in hurried climbdowns today, with both moving to alter legislation that critics say legalizes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
article_snippet.sent: The two, GOP-controlled states were in a frenzy 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: The moves had the direct effect of upsetting gay and lesbian individuals, however, and incited massive protests.
article_snippet.sent: After gay rights activists, sympathetic businesses and celebrities thrust the measures into the national spotlight, both 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: 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 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.