LGBTQ+ Orgs Celebrate Michigan’s Historic Passage of LGBTQ+ Non-Discrimination Law
thenewcivilrightsmovement.comMichigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is about to sign a historic LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination law, making hers the first U.S. state to pass such protections in nearly 3 years.
The victory comes after Republican legislators spent 4 decades blocking the legal protections. The law will add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), helping protect LGBTQ+ people against discrimination in the fields of education, employment, housing, and public accommodations.
The bill’s gay sponsor Sen. Jeremy Moss (D) said that Republicans had blocked such protections from going into law for decades.
Republican opponents of the bill said it would force secular views on religious citizens. They even tried to carve out exceptions into Moss’ bill that would’ve allowed religious business owners to discriminate on the basis of “sincerely held beliefs,” but these efforts failed before the bill passed in a 64-45 House vote on Wednesday.
