Chipotle, Yelp Slam Indiana's New 'Religious Freedom' Law

Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a "religious freedom" bill into law yesterday that would allow all businesses to legally discriminate against the LGBT community. The overwhelmingly negative response has been swift and merciless. Very, very merciless. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook and the Obama administration are getting in on it.

It stands to reason that, as the country's ninth-most obese state, Indiana knows a thing or two about fast food. Eater reached out to many of the country's prominent fast food and quick-service restaurant chains — Taco Bell, McDonald's, Applebee's, KFC, Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Starbucks, Burger King, and Chipotle — for comment on the bill, which can be read here in its entirety.

A Starbucks representative said over the phone, "This does not impact us." No other restaurants would comment except for Chipotle, whose PR Director, Chris Arnold, responded to us via email:

"Wow. Ok.

I suppose Indiana can do [what] it wants, but we will continue to welcome our customers -- all of them."

Good for Chipotle for having the backbone to speak out against this atrocious law, and here's hoping that other prominent chains will soon fall into line.

Leading tech entrepreneurs that have condemned the measure include Tim Cook, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who recently posted on the Yelp blog: "These laws set a terrible precedent that will likely harm the broader economic health of the states where they have been adopted, the businesses currently operating in those states and, most importantly, the consumers who could be victimized under these laws."