OLYMPIA, Washington -- Washington Governor Jay Inslee rescinded the state travel ban to Indiana Friday morning.
Inslee made the announcement in a memo shared with cabinet agencies.
The governor's office highlighted this excerpt from that memo in an email to media:
Inslee announced Monday he was imposing the ban on state-funded travel to Indiana over the state’s adoption of the “religious freedom” law that some said would have allowed discrimination against gays.
“I find Indiana’s new law disturbing, particularly at a time when more and more states and people in America are embracing civil rights for everyone,” Inslee said in a news release at the time.
A swift and heavy backlash emerged after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill into law last week. It would allow businesses in Indiana to refuse customers based on the owners’ “religious freedom” or principles.
In the following days Indiana lawmakers amended the law in hopes of quelling the outrage.