News & Commentary

After a year of national crises including the COVID pandemic, voting hurdles in one of the most critical elections in our Nation’s history, and highly visible cases of police brutality followed by mass protests, many Indiana legislators came in to session ready to strip Hoosiers of their rights.

I spent most of my life wanting to be invisible, afraid to say who I am, afraid of the consequences of being me. At IU’s recent LGBTQ+ Health Conference I heard the inimitable Kate Bornstein say that for the first twenty or so years of her life, she had created herself, in her mind, as a gender girl. When she said that, and I thought, “Yeah…I know that…just for a lot longer than the first twenty or so years….” Living fully has brought me to a place I would have never expected – I have the opportunity

The U.S. policing system has been entwined with racism since its inception during the slavery era. The first municipal police department in the country was conceived as a slave patrol to monitor and surveil the Black enslaved population.  

Medical guidance and legislation have been at odds for years. HB 1340 has introduced relevant and person-centered language, shifting how we talk about HIV and removing barriers faced by people living with HIV.

Technological innovation often outpaces our ability to protect individual privacy. That is definitely true in the current moment. Our digital footprints can be tracked by the government and corporations in ways that were once unthinkable. 

This summer, we saw Black Lives Matter protests across the state of Indiana, calling for an end to police brutality. And although the majority of these protests were peaceful, they were met by police with teargas and projectiles, ultimately leading to three ACLU of Indiana lawsuits. 

In just the first week of the 2021 Indiana Legislative Session, several pieces of legislation have been introduced in an attempt to take power and oversight of local police departments away from the very communities' police departments are meant to serve.  

Like many of you, we watched with brewing outrage and great heartbreak as extremists and agitators stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed coup attempt to overturn the legitimate outcome of a democratic election. What we saw on Jan. 6 in Washington D.C., were violent acts meant to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, the very hallmark of our democracy.  

2020 has been a challenging year, full of hardships. But through these hardships our supporters have helped start critical conversations that are necessary to create real change. With the help of our community the ACLU of Indiana was able to protect Hoosiers constitutional rights at every level. Watch the video from our team to learn more!