EXCLUSIVE: Indy Star Orchestrates Secret Campaign To Promote LGBT Special Protections

Breitbart News has exclusively obtained an email sent by the President and Publisher of the Indianapolis Star. It invites “community leaders” to help plan and coordinate an aggressive, highly orchestrated campaign to “persuade” the Indiana state legislature to adopt sweeping special protections for Indiana’s gay, lesbian and transgender communities.

The email, sent personally by Karen Ferguson Fuson, President and Publisher of the Star, was sent early this morning to an undisclosed list of business and media elites, together with gay rights activists. It pulls no punches in its scope or its goals. The email, in its unedited entirety reads as follows:

Dear Friends:

The IndyStar is preparing this fall to launch an ambitious and aggressive Editorial Board campaign designed to persuade the governor and state lawmakers to expand Indiana’s civil rights law to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

We would like to privately brief you on our plans for the campaign, to explain ways in which you and your organization can partner with us, to answer your questions, and to hear your thoughts and possible concerns. Please join us for a meeting with community leaders on September 22, from 8:00 – 9:30 am at our offices, 130 S. Meridian St.

We believe that it is critical for all of us to work together to drive this important change and to further the recovery from damage done to our state by the RFRA controversy.

Please join us as we prepare to continue this vital conversation about the future of Indiana. To RSVP, email [redacted]

Karen Ferguson Fuson

Group President, Gannett Domestic Publishing

President & Publisher, IndyStar

Once one of America’s most dominant mass circulation metropolitan daily newspapers, The Indianapolis Star has seen both its circulation and advertising revenues plummet since it was purchased by Gannett for $1.1 billion in 1999. Under Gannett ownership, the Star’s paid daily circulation has fallen more than two-thirds to less than 100,000 sold copies per day.

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