Michigan will become the first state to pass a historic law that will ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace.
According to lgbtqnation.com, the Michigan Senate has already passed the legislation. That same legislation will now go to the Michigan House. There is a slight Democrat majority in the Michigan House (56 to 53), so it is unclear if the legislation will pass. If it does, members of the House expect Governor Whitmer (D) to sign it into law.
The law will add sexual orientation and gender identity to the states Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. This addition will make sexual orientation, and gender identity protected classes similar to sex and race regarding housing and workplace discrimination, among other things.
State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D), the states first out-gay senator, is the sponsor of the bill and stated:
This baton has been passed on from generation to generation of LGBTQ activists. Real Michiganders suffer from real acts of discrimination for no [other] reason other than their sexual orientation or gender identity.
He also went on to say:
Had it not been for their courage to come forward to bring much-needed attention to these wrongs, we could not have progressed to this moment.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already offer anti-discrimination protection to LGBTQ+ people. Still, they dont necessarily elevate those protections to being in the Civil Rights bill within that state. Another 27 states do not offer these types of protections at all.
Those opposed to this legislation are highly concerned that it might target those with sincerely held religious beliefs that prohibit them from being as welcoming as some might want to the LGBTQ+ community. This concern is that there are some people whose religious beliefs might prohibit them from serving members of the LGBTQ+ community, and they might get in legal trouble for it because of this brand-new law.
Intended as an anti-discrimination bill in Michigan for the LGBTQ+ community, the bill might ironically become discriminatory against people with certain religious beliefs. That is the kind of thing that is always scary about these new types of legislation, and it should get recognized as a real threat to how people express themselves and their religious beliefs in this country. That means that some are concerned about the potential chilling effect of this legislation on how some people express religious views.
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