This past summer, President Obama issued Executive Order 13672 which will add prohibitions against discrimination based sexual orientation and gender identity in federal contracts. EO 13672 modifies previous Executive Order 11478 by substituting “sexual orientation, gender identity” for “sexual orientation” and Executive Order 11246 by substituting “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin” for “sex, or national origin”. Last […]

Since last week’s hearing on expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include the LGBT community, I have been sharing testimony prepared by members of the trans* community that were to be delivered at the State House Commerce Committee hearing. Since not enough time was alotted to hear these personal stories at the hearing, seven of them have been […]

Over the past two days, I have been sharing testimony prepared by members of the trans* community that were to be delivered at a State House Commerce Committee hearing on expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include the LGBT community. Unfortunately, not enough time was alotted to hear these personal stories. You can read them HERE and HERE. […]

In one day, it passed out of committee and is up for a House vote. Despite what the bill’s proponents claim, the RFRA would enshrine discrimination on religious grounds into state law. UPDATED following House vote. There’s still time to take action. See below. It’s happening even faster than we’d feared. Following a hearing, the Michigan House of Representatives House […]

Michigan’s Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger has been paying lip service to the LGBT community by saying that he supports expanding civil rights protects to them as long as it (a) doesn’t include transgender Michiganders and (b) is accompanied by a “license to discriminate” bill that allows anyone who wants to deny basic services to gays, lesbians, or bisexuals the […]

Yesterday, I wrote about how nobody from the LGBT community was given time to speak about their personal stories at the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act expansion legislation hearing. In that piece, I published the prepared testimony of trans activist and personal friend Amy Hunter from Kalamazoo. Amy wasn’t the only one who had prepared to speak but was unable to […]

Reliable sources in Lansing have informed me that expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act is dead in the water in 2014 and will not be voted on during the lame duck session. According to the source, Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger says neither version of the expansion bill – one that includes transgender Michiganders and one that doesn’t – […]

This post has been updated as indicated This morning, a hearing was held in Lansing to debate the expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. After hearing from members of the business community testifying in favor of the legislation, faith-based groups both in favor of and opposing adding civil rights protections for the LGBT community, the House Commerce Committee adjourned […]

Hearings set for Dec. 3 and 4 on two pieces of legislation critical to the LGBT community and beyond. Take action now. If you believe that every Michigander deserves equal protection under the law — with no exceptions — the time to be heard is now. The Michigan Legislature is holding hearings on two pieces of legislation this week that […]

Unfair as it may be, there are certain things we northerners think of when you think of southern states. The first is bigotry and intolerance. Another is a near worshipful devotion to guns and anything related to guns. Hunting is part of it but just walking around with a big weapon strapped to your body is a much bigger part […]

There is one thing that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has in common with April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, the two women who are challenging Michigan’s bigoted same-sex marriage ban: they both want their case to go to the Supreme Court of the United States as quickly as possible. The difference is that Bill Schuette is using our tax dollars […]