Michigan Legislation expected to include gay and transgender residents in Civil Rights Law

A coalition of LGBT groups from around the state, including the ACLU of Michigan, Affirmations, Equality Michigan, KICK, the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, and the Ruth Ellis Center have been working on getting Michigan legislators to introduce legislation which would update the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act (1976).

According to this coalition of group, the new legislation “would ensure that no Michigander could be discriminated against, or fired from their job, just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Some of the organizing around this issue at the local level has paid off in that cities like Flint successfully “signed off on including transgender people in Flint’s human rights ordinance. A week later, the White House came to Detroit to address housing discrimination against gay and transgender folks with the Ruth Ellis Center. And this past week, allies in Muskegon worked with the City Commission to make progress on protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination.”

Considering there is all this movement at the local level and that some Michigan legislators want to overturn local ordinances, it seems like an important time for people to support statewide legislation that would prevent the continuation of existing legal forms of discrimination against those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

The coalition of groups are asking people to get people to support such legislation and invite 5 friends to join the campaign. The campaign is being hosted at the online site Don’t Change Yourself, Change the Law, where you can join the campaign and get 5 friend to get involved.