On Saturday night this past weekend, the heroes who are Equality Michigan had their annual fundraising dinner and awards banquet. Although a couple of hundred people attended, it was a surprisingly intimate event on the top floor of the Motor City Casino in Detroit. With the dramatic Detroit skyline dominating the room, LGBT activists and allies gathered to celebrate their […]

What’s happening in Kansas is particularly reprehensible, but discriminatory laws in the name of religion are a troubling national trend. I admit, I don’t know much about Kansas aside from The Wizard of the Oz. Dorothy was sure eager to get out of there. The good-hearted girl would be even more desperate to escape these days, I’d wager. The eyes […]

Next Saturday, my good friends at Equality Michigan have their annual fundraising dinner at the Motor City Casino in Detroit. This year’s special guest is Richard Carlbom who is the Campaign Manager for Minnesotans United for All Families and Director of State Campaigns at Freedom to Marry. According to Equality Michigan, Carlbom will also be making “a special announcement you […]

Share the Love Late last year, Anne and I traveled to the home of Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, a same-sex couple with adopted children who find themselves at the center of a fierce legal battle over marriage equality and adoption rights for same-sex couples in our state. Our interview got a lot of attention and spurred me on to […]

Got hypocrisy? Dave Agema recently wrote these hateful words on his Facebook page: Have you seen Muslims shaking hands with a Muslim Girl Scouts? Have you seen a Muslim Candy Striper? Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life? After remaining quiet for months as Agema spewed bigoted hate speech on […]

Bigot is as bigot does Anti-marriage equality bigots in Utah have asked the Supreme Court to halt same-sex marriages in their state after a federal judge found their statewide ban unconstitutional. Since the decision, same sex couples have been getting married in droves. The petitioners today described each of these marriages this way: Each one, the state said in its […]

Under fire and on the run You can always tell when you have the tea party backed into a corner. That’s when they bring out the Big Crazy guns with both barrels blazing. That happened this week when the tea party’s Madison Project Michigan PAC sent out an email from Jack Hoogendyk, a tea partier who primaried U.S. Representative Fred […]

Leadership! [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] In a year-end interview with MLive, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder took the bold step of letting others lead on providing basic civil rights protections for members of the LGBT community. It was a proud moment: Gay-rights advocates were quick to point out that Michigan law does not currently […]

A homophobic bigot finds another line to cross Michigan national GOP committeeman Dave Agema, a notorious anti-gay bigot, has found another line to cross in his crusade to vilify the LGBT community. It’s hard to find a line that goes further than his posting on Facebook the claims by a “doctor” who says that, among other odious things, gays are […]

Every day this week I have been posting about the fundraiser for the legal fund for April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse who are challenging Michigan’s discriminatory marriage ban. Today is the last day. Over half of the residents in our state oppose this law and, equally as important, it is a case that’s likely to go to the U.S. Supreme […]

I want to introduce you to the legal team who is fighting to end the ban on same sex marriage in Michigan. These heroes haven’t received any compensation at all for their works but they deserved to be recognized.

Attorneys Carole Stanyar, Dana Nessel, Ken Mogill and Robert Sedler have years of experience trying criminal and civil cases both in state and federal courts. Ms. Stanyar, Mr. Mogill, and Mr. Sedler have all argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, while Ms. Nessel is recognized as one of Michigan’s premier attorneys for LGTB issues, having represented numerous clients over the years. Additionally, there are two nationally recognized, high-profile attorneys, Mary Bunauto and Leslie Cooper, who have signed on to consult for the trial. Mary Bunauto is the Civil Rights Project Director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). Ms. Bunauto successfully argued Baker v. State of Vermont in 1999 which allowed for the first civil unions law in the country. Ms. Bunauto also worked on the DOMA case. Leslie Cooper is an attorney for the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. She is currently challenging Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage in Whitewood v. Wolf.

These attorneys who are handling the DeBoer v. Snyder case have assembled a nationally recognized team of expert witnesses who…