A court ruling in Michigan has found it legal for businesses to refuse customers on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Judge Christopher M. Murray ruled that bias against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals is not prohibited under the state’s 1974 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), which outlawed discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as race, sex and religion.
However, Murray did find ELCRA protected trans and gender diverse people from service discrimination, on the basis ‘sex-based’ bias is illegal.
The ruling came after two cases of LGBTQ+ discrimination were presented to the court. One was the refusal of Rouch World, a park and wedding venue, to host the marriage of a same sex couple, and the other came after a trans.