<text>  CNNFor Max, the passage of Indianas new religious freedom law feels a lot like high school. Max is transgender. The 26-year-old was born a female but identifies as a man. That was a tough experience in Evansville: looking like a girl, everyone treating you like one, but not feeling at home in your skin. Classmates made fun of him. He withdrew. He and his parents fought. Now they dont talk. Making it to his mid-20s feels like a victory to him now, as does knowing that he has friends who support him, friends who are straight and gay and transgender. He had just gotten to a point of feeling accepted when the Indiana state legislature passed the Religious Freedom Act. This law makes me feel like Im being bullied all over again, he said. If I go into a restaurant and the owner doesnt like me because Im transgender, because their religion has told them that Im bad, does that give them the right to refuse to serve me? Proponents of the law, including Gov. Mike Pence, say thats not what the law will do. He has said its intended to prevent the government from forcing anyone to do something that opposes their religious beliefs. Some businesses and Indianans are behind him. Nationally influential Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, who lives in North Carolina, tweeted this week, Thank God for politicians like GovPenceIN who are not afraid to take a stand regardless of political consequences. But there is a tidal wave of opposition throughout the state and across the country. Critics say the law is a thinly veiled mechanism to legally sanction discrimination. Protests have raged throughout the state and elsewhere. Some religious leaders oppose it. Civic groups, corporations and state governments, such as Washington state and Connecticut, are vowing not to to do business with Indiana. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has blasted the law. So has the N.C.A.A. Its college basketball tournament is hosting the Final Four in Indianapolis this weekend. Some businesses in the state are reacting by placing signs in windows that read, We serve everyone. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a vocal opponent of the law, demanded: Fix this law. ... Do so immediately. He and others contend that because Indiana, unlike other states, has no statewide law protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination, this religious freedom law is a license to discriminate. Hundreds of protesters joined Max in a demonstration on the streets of Evansville Monday. Some said they would consider leaving the state because the law makes them feel unwelcome. Lee Flowers, 27, organized a rally in Evansville to protest the law. He grew up in Indiana, but now hes afraid to go into businesses with his boyfriend. This is very personal, he said. It hurts me. It really does. This is shameful for Indiana. Is anyone infringing on someones religion? No. This is about giving people the legal defense to refuse business to someone they dont like based on sexual orientation. Casey Samson of Samson Family Leather in Lebanon told CNN that he read the law, which runs four pages. He feels that the law merely protects his right to refuse to sell to a customer whose beliefs he thinks offend his Catholic faith. That doesnt include gay customers, he insists. We have no issues serving a same sex couple at all, he said. The law is strictly protecting people from the government to forcefully make them do something against their will. CNN asked him to give an example of what might offend him, and cause him to refuse to sell to someone. Anything that promotes hate or a derogatory statement that someone believes is OK, he answered. I dont want to take my personal time making a product that spews hate into the world. Thats never happened in Samson Family Leathers 35-year history, he said, but it could and thats why he thinks the law is needed. The owner has shared his opinion with local media, and that has sparked a fierce backlash from many in the community, he said. Weve been called homophobic and hypocrites, he said. Weve also experienced a very large amount of support.Our phones have not stopped ringing from people all over the state and country. Weve gotten e-mails saying I appreciate you standing up. Thank you for standing up for our rights. Indiana pastor Mike Woods told CNN Monday that he supports the law, too. As someone who walks in my religious freedom all the time, Im glad I have something to protect me, he said. I dont see the law as discriminatory. I just see it protecting people from any type of business or anyone trying to infringe on their religious rights. Woods blamed Pences office for its inability to educate people about what the law says. There should have been public meetings about it, Woods said. The Indianapolis Star reported that the ceremony where Pence signed the bill into law on Thursday was deliberately low-key and private and closed to media. The governors staff office, it said, refused to provide names of people who surrounded Pence as he signed. To Samson, the law doesnt explicitly use the word discrimination and that, to him, means it wont lead to discrimination. The law states that the government cant substantially burden a persons exercise of religion and that individuals who feel like their religious beliefs have been or could be substantially burdened can lean on this law to fend off lawsuits. An often used example: A florist who doesnt want to sell flowers to a gay couple or a baker who doesnt want to make their wedding cake. Those are arguably businesses that can choose which client to hire and which to reject, proponents of the law say. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said its likely that a refusal to serve a gay person wouldnt stand under the law, but a refusal to provide a service for a gay wedding would. Indiana isnt the first state to establish this law, Samson said. Its nothing new for the U.S. and the state of Indiana. Samson is right that Indiana isnt the first state to adopt a religious freedom law, but the situation is a little more complicated than that. Indiana is the 20th state to adopt a religious freedom restoration law. For instance, bills in Arizona, Georgia and Ohio with similar wording were proposed. The effort in Arizona failed in 2014. Georgias bill has not been voted on and the legislative session ends Thursday. The Ohio bill stalled in 2014. A similar bill is proposed in Arkansas. In Little Rock Monday night, protesters demonstrated against a bill called the Conscious Protection Act. As the bills creator, Republican Rep. Bob Ballinger left a meeting Monday, protesters shouted: Shame on you! In the past, religious freedom laws were enacted with broad support. Many were passed before the recent movement for gay rights and before the majority of states came to recognize same-sex marriage. But when it was introduced in December, the bill that became Indians religious freedom law incited fierce debate among faith leaders, businesses and residents, the Indianapolis Star newspaper reports. Mark Ivy watched as that debate raged over the holidays and into the new year, hoping that the bill would not pass. He lives in Farmersburg, Indiana, where about 1,100 people live. Indiana recognized gay marriage last October. Ivy married his longtime partner in December. I understand politics in Indiana. I know its conservative. I get that this is about politics, he said. Because I can see it as politics, Im not mad. But he also said that he feels the law is about bigotry, plain and simple. Its taking us back decades, removing so much progress toward equality in Indiana, he said. Ivy worries that the law could not only allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He wonders if it could conceivably be used for Jewish businesses to refuse service to Muslims and Christians. Hindus could bar Bhuddists. Protestants and Catholics could shun each other, Ivy wrote in a CNN iReport. Mainline church members could say, No to evangelicals. On social media, debate over the law showed no signs of letting up. In response to Christian leader Grahams tweet supporting the law, someone with the username Mary M tweeted, amen using his God given right. Jennifer Watson tweeted them back: NO: as an elected official, his rights are not God given, they are voter given. CNNs Rosa Flores, Justin Lear, Sonia Moghe, Jeremy Diamond and Greg Botelho contributed to this report. 