It appears that – even with this “conference report” in place – Indiana businesses can discriminate against gays & transgender if they want. This doesn’t appear to provide any new protections, it simply deletes the “defense” the previous version made a slam-dunk. Indiana has no state-wide anti-discrimination protections. It’s status quo ante on that, near as I can see.
I believe the headline is misleading. This change to Indiana’s RFRA law does NOT “provide protections for LGBT” folks, if a plain language reading of it matters.
As I understand it, Indiana has NO employment, housing, or any other protections for LBGT people as a class. While this conference report change “does not authorize” discrimination, neither does it prohibit discrimination. Therefore, returning to a status quo ante viz the affirmative defense the old version of the RFRA provided is no “protection” against discrimination; it merely means a litigant won’t have lost his/her case before walking into court. Near as I can tell, a judge could still throw a suit out simply because “there’s no protection against being denied [service/employment/housing/whatever] on the basis of your sexuality, so you have no cause for action in court” even with this “clarification” to the law that was passed, unless the suit comes under a local ordinance.