Politics

Indianapolis Monthly will have a reporter and photographer covering the event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Follow along with live updates below.

An unlikely but passionate rift has heated up in a Southern Indiana school district over the concept of prom events for opposite- and same-gender student pairs. First, Diana Medley, a special education teacher in the Northeast School Corporation in Sullivan County, made remarks to a WTWO-TV (Terre Haute) reporter that set the Internet and regional and even national media atwitter. Outside of a planning meeting for a strictly opposite-sex-dating prom in the school district, she said, in response to the interviewer's question about whether she thinks gay people have "some purpose in life": "I don't. I personally don't, I'm sorry. I don't understand it." In the same TV news report, Bill Phegley, a pastor at Carlisle Christian Church, makes statements considered incendiary by some and to be treasured by others, saying Christians are always "prepared for a fight" and that Jesus gives them "armor for the front, not the back" so as not to run away from that fight.

Finally, a Mike Pence meme.

New is companion bill HB 1153, which seeks to explain some vague language and make it more coherent for Hoosiers if the resolution reaches voters in November.

“There is a Midwestern calmness, a stability of outlook, very well exemplified by Dick [Lugar] and many, many others, that goes over well in Washington,” says longtime Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton.