Indiana Officials Look To Stem Religious Objections Fallout

The wave of protests from businesses and on social media over Indiana's new religious objections law has many local officials working to counter the criticism.  

Use of the hashtag ``BoycottIndiana'' spread across Twitter Friday as activists complained the measure opens the door to legalized discrimination against gay people. The White House press secretary said the law isn't a step toward equality and justice.  

Supporters of the bill Governor Mike Pence signed Thursday say arguments that it allows discrimination are overblown. They maintain that hasn't happened under similar laws covering the federal government and in 19 other states.  

Republican Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard says he wants businesses to know the city is welcoming to all. The Evansville and South Bend mayors are touting their cities as inclusive communities.  

Indiana officials won't confirm whether an attack on the Indiana Dept. of Transportation website was related to controversy over the religious objections law.

The IN DOT gov website experienced slow page load times and occasional outages Friday afternoon.  

An anonymous Twitter poster claimed responsibility and said the attack was in response to the bill signed by Governor Mike Pence that opponents argue will allow discrimination against gay people.  

Indiana officials insist the site wasn't hacked and say they had known for days that the state was a target. The attackers flooded the server with a high volume of traffic to cause outages.  

The Twitter poster also claims to be behind a string of attacks on other government websites, including Michigan DOT gov and NYC DOT gov.