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Advocacy groups on both sides are gearing up for a bitter fight over a proposed gay marriage amendment that an Eli Lilly and Co. executive described as likely to get “expensive and very divisive.”

That’s if the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage gets past the General Assembly early next year and makes it on the ballot — setting off a debate that already is dividing Hoosiers across business and political lines.

backed financially by big Indiana corporations (Eli Lilly and Co. and Cummins Inc.) and national gay-rights groups, plus the advocates who fought two years ago.

And it’s a bipartisan affair, with a Republican campaign manager and plenty of Republican faces joining stalwart Democrats at Wednesday’s event in Downtown Indianapolis’ glassy Artsgarden. Among them was Tom John, a lobbyist and the former Marion County Republican Party chairman.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re straight or gay, male or female, young or old, rural or urban, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian,” Megan Robertson, the campaign manager, told about 200 attendees. “This is a bipartisan initiative that requires all of us to work together to protect our Indiana constitution.”

Robertson worked most recently for U.S. Rep. Luke Messer, an Indiana Republican who opposes gay marriage. She also managed the 2011 reelection campaign of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who has opposed the marriage amendment.

Rob Smith, Lilly’s senior director for corporate responsibility, told gay marriage advocates gathered Wednesday that Lilly believes the coalition’s goals are “consistently aligned with our longstanding position that (the amendment) is bad for business, bad for the state of Indiana.”

Though Lilly and Cummins are eager early supporters of the effort — each has donated $100,000 to start Freedom Indiana — there are business interests opting to sit on the sidelines.

Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kevin Brinegar has said the organization likely will remain neutral because it has members on both sides of the debate.

The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s board also hasn’t taken a formal position, though spokeswoman Molly Deuberry said that could change after it hires a new CEO. In 2011, former CEO Roland Dorson did express worries that the message the proposed amendment would send could hinder Indiana competitively.

The amendment would add Indiana’s statutory ban on gay marriage to the state constitution. It also would prohibit civil unions.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, has reaffirmed his support for the amendment, and legislative leaders have said they will allow it to proceed.

On Wednesday, leaders of Freedom Indiana framed the debate using terms including liberty, fairness and individual rights, words that might appeal to a conservative state.

Polling has shown Hoosiers still are uneasy about gay marriage, with an even split of 45 percent favoring the legalization of gay marriage and 45 percent opposed in Ball State University’s Hoosier Survey last December.

Still, 54 percent in that poll opposed changing Indiana’s constitution. (And 55 percent were comfortable with legalizing civil unions.) http://www.indystar.com/article/20130821/NEWS05/308210041/Freedom-Indi
ana-coalition-kicks-off-fight-against-gay-marriage-ban-amendment

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