Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has changed his mind and now says he will not sign the state’s new religious freedom law.

Hutchinson announced his intentions during a news conference Wednesday, a day after the Arkansas legislature approved the measure. The Republican governor said he wanted state lawmakers to either recall the measure or revise it so that it would more closely mirror a federal religious freedom law. 

Hutchinson reversed course after critics of the bill said it would legally protect businesses that refuse to serve gays and lesbians on the grounds that it would violate the business’ religious beliefs. The state’s largest corporation, retailer Wal-Mart, as well as the chamber of commerce of the Arkansas capital, Little Rock, had also urged Hutchinson to change his mind.

The governor even credited a petition signed by his son, Seth, as influencing his change of heart. 

“This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial,” said Hutchinson. “But these are not ordinary times.”

Saying he wants Arkansas to be known as a state that understands tolerance, Hutchinson said it was important to “get the right balance” between religious and individual rights, and that “we make sure that we communicate we’re not going to be a state that fails to recognize the diversity of our workplace, our economy and our future.”

The backlash against the Arkansas religious freedom bill carried over from the outcry over a similar bill in Indiana, signed into law last month by Governor Mike Pence.  A number of associations and corporations, including the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), have openly denounced it. Some businesses have canceled plans to hold conventions in Indiana, while a number of states have imposed bans on government-funded travel to the state.

Pence told reporters Tuesday the law does not discriminate against gays and lesbians, saying the criticism was based on a “mischaracterization of this law.”  He did, however, pledge to seek a “fix” to the measure in order to ensure that discrimination against same-sex couples is outlawed.

Twenty other U.S. states have religious freedom laws, similar to a federal law signed in 1993 by then-president Bill Clinton, a former Arkansas governor. The federal law, which was initially meant to protect religious minorities, grew out of the desire to safeguard a Native American ritual involving an outlawed psychedelic substance, the peyote plant.
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