Former Senator Rick Santorum argued that Indiana's original religious freedom law was a good bill that should not have been changed. He believes tolerance needs to be a two-way street, and businesses should not be forced to participate in activities they disagree with for religious reasons. However, others say such laws could allow discrimination against various groups including LGBT individuals, religious minorities, and racial groups. Major tech companies are expected to publicly advocate for laws preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians. Santorum has not yet decided if he will run for president in 2016.

1. Santorum on Indiana law: Tolerance is "two-way street"
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said that he had hoped Indiana Gov. Mike Pence wouldn't
have asked for changes to a controversial religious freedom law the state legislature passed, arguing
that now the federal government and the state have "a pretty limited view" of religious liberty.
"I certainly can't say that it's a bad bill. It's a good bill," Santorum said on CBS' "Face the Nation"
Sunday. "But...it doesn't really open the debate up on some of the more current issues."
"I think we need to look at, as religious liberty is now being pushed harder, to provide more religious
protections and that bill doesn't do that," he added.
Indiana's original religious freedom bill, signed earlier this month, came under intense national
scrutiny after critics said that it gave people and businesses permission to deny services to gays and
lesbians. Many major businesses including Apple were critical as well, leading Pence to call for the
legislature to update the measure. Thursday afternoon, he signed an updated version of the law that
states it cannot be used to discriminate against anyone, including gay and lesbian customers.
"No business should discriminate against you because of who you are. But it should have the ability
to say we're not going to participate in certain activities that we disagree with from a religious point
of view," Santorum said.
But Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said the Indiana law was
not about protecting people's religious views.
"It explicitly allowed individuals to use their religious beliefs to underline other types of laws not
only against gay, lesbian and transgender people, but against other religious minorities and in some
instances African-Americans lawyers Las Vegas and Asian Americans as well," she said in a separate
interview on "Face the Nation."
Several tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, as well as Eric Schmidt
and Larry Page of Google are expected to publicly call for laws that prevent discrimination against
gays and lesbians on Monday.
"They are joining many other important voices in the American business community, from Apple to
Walmart to Angie's list, who are really looking at their employees' whole lives," Warbelow said.
"These companies already offer non-discrimination protections, but they want to make sure that
outside of the workforce their employees are not going to be turned away when they go to a
restaurant, or grocery shopping, or when they go to purchase a home."
Santorum called tolerance a "two-way street." As http://law.ggu.edu/ an example, he asked whether
a gay man should be forced to print signs reading "God hates fags" for the Westboro Baptist Church.
"Should the government force you to do that? And that's what these cases are all about," he said.
"This is where I think we just need some space to say, 'let's have some tolerance be a two-way
street.'"

2. He also said that as attitudes toward gay marriage shift across the country, there needs to be a
conversation about "respecting people on both sides of the issues."
"I think that's where you have to differentiate between discrimination against the person, because of
who they are, and unwillingness to participate in actions because they're inconsistent with your
religious beliefs," Santorum said.
Warbelow said that there are over 100 bills that have been introduced in state legislatures
"attempting to target the LGBT community." She said the Human Rights Campaign is going to be
focusing their attention on Texas and South Carolina in particular, because they are considering
religious freedom bills similar to what was originally passed in Indiana.
On the presidential front, Santorum - who won the 2012 Iowa caucus and is eyeing another
presidential bid - said he has not yet made a decision about 2016.
"I'm going through the process that I think 17 or 18 other folks are going through right now, which
is trying to determine whether your message is a good message and out there delivering a message
on making sure we have a message that unifies the country," he said.
He said he has tried to focus his message on helping those who have been left behind in the
economy.
"We have to give them an opportunity to be able to reach that American dream again and then I
think Republicans, frankly, have been very weak on that," he said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/santorum-indiana-shouldnt-have-changed-religious-freedom-law/