LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A long-stalled movement to make it illegal to discriminate against LGBT people may gain traction — not in the Legislature but with a Michigan board that is being asked to declare that such discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations is already unlawful under state law.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission will meet Monday to consider the request after two months of receiving public feedback, including roughly 300 comments. The interpretive statement, if issued, would say that discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is a form of sex discrimination outlawed under the state’s 1976 civil rights law.
The request from LGBT rights group Equality Michigan has revived a political fight between Democrats and Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature who have been at odds over expanding civil rights protections for LGBT citizens. Outside allies also have offered sharply different views on the commission’s responsibility and authority in the wake of federal rulings declaring LGBT-based discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations is forbidden.
“The lack of clarity about the meaning of sex discrimination under (Michigan’s) Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and the Legislature’s protracted failure to act to explicitly protect LGBTQ people, leaves these Michiganders without a remedy for the wrongs they face,” Equality Michigan public policy director Nathan Triplett wrote to the commission. “The interpretative statement we are requesting will clarify a glaring legal ambiguity and give LGBTQ people access to the legal protection they deserve and to which they are entitled.”
Nine of 11 Senate Democrats signed a letter urging the commission to act.