NEW YORK (AP) – Indiana’s new religious-objections law has angered many on Broadway, and some are calling on union members to avoid working in that state.
A Care2 petition started by playwright and actor Eric Ulloa urges the Actors’ Equity Association – the labor union that represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers – to avoid performances or work in Indiana following passage of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
It had over 1,100 signatures by 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Ulloa in an interview Thursday said he was sparked into action because the law might make it possible for touring actors to be thrown out of Indiana restaurants and hotels simply because the owners object to their conversations or they’re sleeping with members of the same sex.
“We are being placed as actors in a very dangerous predicament,” he said. “Why are we not protecting our own from having to be in a hotel where the Christian owner can say, ‘I’m sorry, you and your boyfriend can’t lie in the same bed because the Bible tells me that’s wrong.'”