INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The CEO of a massive gamers' convention that threatened to leave Indiana earlier this year over a divisive religious objections law said yesterday that organizers are “shopping the show'' to other cities and could relocate if lawmakers don't expand protections for gays and lesbians.
 
Cities across the U.S. have courted convention organizers since Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed the initial bill in March, provoking national uproar from critics who believed it would sanction discrimination against gay people. The backlash prompted lawmakers to make changes forbidding discrimination, but they stopped short of extending civil rights protections to the LGBT community, as some cities _ including Indianapolis_ have done.
 
Adrian Swartout, the CEO of Gen Con, told The Associated Press yesterday on the convention's opening day that a competitive offer from a state that grants gays and lesbians that status could be a “catalyst'' pushing the event to relocate when its contract expires in 2020.