By MAGGIE GEORGE
Capital News Service
LANSING – The Legislature is moving ahead with an expansion of the state civil rights law to better protect LGBTQ+ residents from discrimination based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.
A bill by Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, would explicitly include them in the 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and public service based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status and marital status.
“There was a time when (the LGBTQ+ community) had very few outlets, and it was incumbent upon us to express who we were, alone,” Moss said.
Last summer, the Michigan Supreme Court decided a case involving businesses in Gwinn, near Marquette, and Sturgis that declined to provide services to either a same-sex couple or a transgender individual.
The court ruled that the state’s civil rights law, as currently written, includes LGBTQ+ individuals.
At a recent Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee hearing, Moss said that in many regards, the bill formally places what is already today’s practice into law.
“While this is a document of my values as a gay person, I also believe this is a document of Michigan values to have decency, kindness and respect towards one another,” Moss said.
Cosponsors of the bill include Sens. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, Paul Wojno, D-Warren, and John Cherry, D-Flint.
A similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Jason Hoskins, D-Southfield.
According to Hoskins, the legislation would not only increase inclusivity and equity in the state, but also advance economic growth and prosperity.
“As the governor stated in her State of the State (address), ‘bigotry is bad for business,’” Hoskins said.
Brian Calley, the president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, said his advocacy organization “strongly recommends that all businesses follow the decision of the Supreme Court which the pending legislation would affirm.”
Hoskins said a letter sent to legislators from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Realtors, Michigan Manufacturers Association and other business groups supports updating the civil rights law.
“A highly talented and diverse workforce is key to moving our state forward,” reads the letter. “Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce goes beyond competitive wages and benefits.”
According to Luke Londo, a member of the state Civil Rights Commission, the bill “transcends partisan affiliation and is one of those rare moments in our heightened and increasingly adversarial political discourse where the right and just thing is plainly self-evident.”
Londo, who is mayor pro tem of Hazel Park, said that when he was growing up, there were no legislators – unlike now – advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.
“I quit playing football when I was 16 because it was easier than coming out in a small town in the Upper Peninsula,” he said.
Opponents of the bill cited reservations regarding personal safety in private spaces such as locker rooms and bathrooms.
“My concern with this bill is, ‘What protections do I have as a victim, as well as other victims of sexual assault, both male and female?’” one witness, Libby Ranshaw, asked the committee at the hearing.
Ranshaw disagreed with the argument that the legislation would provide opportunities and rights that other protected classes have.
“It doesn’t offer people like me protection when I go to the restroom if there is a transgender female in the restroom. What protection do I have that this person isn’t going to attack me in the restroom? Or my granddaughter who plays intramural sports, in her locker room?” she said.
Katherine Bussard, another witness who criticized the proposal, said there are “single-sex spaces like bathrooms or locker rooms, especially domestic violence shelters, where women and children should be able to go and feel safe.”
Bussard said, “To allow someone who is not of that same gender into that space can actually set back, derail and prevent recovery of victims of that type of abuse.”
Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, who chairs the committee, said she was “horrified” that witnesses would bring topics of sexual and domestic abuse into a conversation about the bill.
The committee will hear additional testimony at its next meeting, she said.