Displaying items by tag: michigan

The Fair and Equal Michigan campaign for equal rights in the face of discrimination has conceded defeat.

Back in Michigan where last time we saw the LGBTQ rights group, Fair and Equal Michigan, had successfully sent to the vote their initiative to bring protections to LGBTQ people against discrimination.

Well, we may not need that initiative in the end because openly bisexual Democratic Representative Laurie Pohutsky has reintroduced a bill to amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in Michigan, which currently protects against discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, marital status or marital status.

Here is some news about the Fair and Equal Michigan campaign that we have been following since the beginning of the year and that tries to amend the state's Civil Rights Law to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In Michigan, the initiative to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination was in jeopardy, victim of the coronavirus.

Fair and Equal Michigan is trying to gather the signatures and send the initiative that would add protections for LGBTQ people in the state’s Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act on the November ballot, and that’s quite a challenge!

I was talking to you the other day about the progress of the initiative to protect LGBTQ people in Michigan’s Civil Rights Act, and we had seen the example of a lesbian teacher who was discriminated against in her job, which fortunately gained cause.

Sadly today here is another example of discrimination and harassment suffered by two lesbians at work in the same state.

After 37 years of work, LGBTQ groups may be on the verge of accomplishing what they have not been able to do before.

Earlier this month at Hill-McCloy High School in Montrose, Michigan, a teacher asked her students to write about a subject near and dear to their hearts.

In 2018 the Michigan Department of Civil Rights reported 44 cases of discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals.

However, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act introduced in the state in 1976 doesn’t protect LGBTQ people. The listed categories that are protected from discrimination are religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, family status, and marital status.

Therefore, as you can see, there is no protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In 2011, the city of Holland, Michigan has already tried to include the LGBTQ community in the anti-discrimination ordinance, but it didn’t work. The bill was rejected by a 5-4 vote.

This time there is a new mayor in town, Nathan Bocks, who is in favor of the amendment.