In an effort to combat the negative publicity due to the controversy over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Indy Mayor Greg Ballard says lawmakers should add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s civil rights statute.

Ballard made the comments during a news conference this afternoon.

He says the RFRA controversy is hurting the city and state and one way to fix that would be to change the state’s civil rights code.

Lawmakers are looking clarifying RFRA so it does not allow for discrimination.  The Mayor says they should make sure local anti-discrimination laws are exempt from RFRA.

You can hear the Mayor’s comments above.  They run approximately 12 minutes.