Angie’s List Cancels $40 Million 1000 Jobs Indiana Expansion Over Anti-Gay ‘Religious Freedom’ Law

Popular local business review and search site Angie’s List is canceling its expansion plans in response to Indiana’s “religious freedom” law.

Since the year after its 1995 founding, Angie’s List has been headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The $315 million corporation which lets users review local businesses, especially home improvement professionals, has been planning a $40 million renovation of its own, moving its headquarters across town and adding 1000 new jobs over five years.

But thanks to state lawmakers and Republican Governor Mike Pence‘s new Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, those expansion plans have been canceled.

“Angie’s List is open to all and discriminates against none and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents,” CEO Bill Oesterle said in a statement today, adding, the expansion is “on hold until we fully understand the implications of the freedom restoration act on our employees, both current and future.”

UPDATE: 
How’s This For Proof Mike Pence Is Lying When He Says His Anti-Gay Bill Isn’t About Discrimination?

The company’s statement noted it “will begin reviewing alternatives for the expansion of its headquarters immediately.”

The IndyStar adds that Angie’s list “hinted that moving some parts of the company out of state is ‘on the table.'”

Oesterle has said in the past that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Pence, was non-inclusive and would make it harder for the state’s companies to attract top talent.

Oesterle is well known in Republican and business circles, and he was former Gov. Mitch Daniels’ campaign manager in 2004.

The decision by Angie’s List to pull back its investment in Indiana is part of a huge and growing negative response from businesses and other financial interests across the country that do business or are based in Indiana, and other public individuals and entities, including the world’s largest and most-respected corporation, Apple, Inc., the City of San Francisco, the White House, Broadway’s Audra McDonald, $4 billion software firm Salesforce, $50 million annual gaming convention Gen Con, Fortune 500 member Cummins, Eskenazi Health, Eli Lilly and Co., Yelp, Hillary Clinton, George Takei, Pat McAfee, Jason Collins, Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus, James Van Der Beek, Sophia Bush, Dustin Lance Black, Mara Wilson, Jack Antonoff, the Mayor of Indianapolis, and the State of Indiana’s own tourism board.

 

Image by WFIU Public Radio via Flickr and a CC license
Hat Tip: TJ