Michigan senators voted Wednesday to expand the state’s civil rights law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, including the LGBTQ community.
With full control of state government for the first time in 40 years, Democrats have made amending Michigan’s Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 a top priority.
After the vote, Sen. Jeremy Moss, the bill’s sponsor, said, “This has come a long way for those who are suffering here and those who died waiting for this moment to come.” “We are running to the finish line with this baton.”
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Moss, who is gay, delivered an impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate before the bill passed 23-15, with three Republicans voting in favor. The bill needs House approval before it heads to the governor’s desk.
“Just last week I heard that an old friend, an 80-year-old woman, cut everything out of her life when she moved into a nursing home,” Moss said. , just a bridge player.”
Democrats in the Michigan Senate have passed a bill to include protections for LGBT individuals in the state’s civil rights law. (AP Photo/Al Gordis)
Moss said the woman “didn’t want to lose a safe place to live for the rest of her life.”
A majority of Senate Republicans opposed the measure, arguing it could violate the rights of religious groups.
Michigan’s civil rights law prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public services based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, family status, or marital status.
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Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, the first person openly elected across Michigan to be LGBTQ, said at a roundtable near Detroit on Feb. 24 that in the absence of legal remedies, Many LGBTQ community members said they remain silent in the face of discrimination.
As a private attorney, Nessel said he was presented with discrimination cases “every day.”
“I had to say to them, ‘I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do. There are no laws to enforce here,'” Nessel said.
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Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will also attend the Feb. 24 roundtable and said he plans to sign the bill into law.
