Why does Indiana want Arizona's headache?

We like to wring our hands about what the Arizona Legislature is or isn't doing.

But give them this: They haven't messed with anything like last year's Senate Bill 1062 this legislative session.

That hasn't been the case elsewhere, including my home state of Indiana, which has done what Arizona refused last year. Gov. Mike Pence quietly signed a bill to protect "religious freedom."

The language is even more questionable in Indiana's bill than what spurred all the protests in Arizona because it allows people "whose exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened" [emphasis mine] to use that as a defense.

In other words, people can claim a religious hardship, even if they haven't actually experienced one, as long as they can make a solid enough case that they were likely to be burdened.

Oy. Indiana has no idea what it is getting into.

Major employers there have spoken against the bill, saying it will hurt Indiana's image as a welcoming place for diverse workers. Indianapolis's largest and most lucrative convention is threatening to leave if the bill becomes law. A major church convention has threatened to cancel its 2017 gathering.

And all of this is happening just as the Final Four comes to town, prompting the NBA's first openly gay player to wonder via Twitter whether he will be welcomed there as a visiting sports analyst.

Ouch. Talk about bad PR for a state where March Madness is practically a religion.

Deja vu for Arizona, which experienced similar black eyes and economic threats last year as national attention began turning to the Super Bowl. And, mind you, then-Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the law.

I don't get it. No matter how much proponents argue that the wording isn't really that bad, it's pariah legislation. It's just a matter of time before some group files an expensive court challenge that sucks up the oxygen for other important issues.

Honestly, even if these bills scratch some sort of ideological itch, I don't know why lawmakers would want that kind of headache.

Scenes from last year's SB 1062 protests: