Recently Michigan passed an amendment to the Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act. This Act, originally passed in 1976, prohibits discrimination on the basis of "religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status" in the state of Michigan. While the law was interpreted to include protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community, Senate Bill Four codified those protections into law by adding "sexual orientation, gender identity or expression" to the list.
To me, preventing discrimination of a marginalized group sounds like a good thing. Yet I know people who are adamantly against these additions. In fact the comments of an acquaintance of mine indicated that their church "would not stand" for this change and that "the battle is real." To me the comments made it sound like the church is preparing for a fight. (And yes I know, I'm only giving you snippets of their words, but I want to protect their anonymity. If I were to share their entire quote, people in my community would know exactly who I was quoting, and I am not trying to badmouth or publicly shame anyone. I hope that if you're reading this you know I wouldn't take their words out of context, or intentionally misrepresent the intent of the comment.) Anyway... it sounded, to me, like this person was suggesting a fight was brewing.
It almost sounds, to me, as if the person I quoted wants people in Michigan to have the right to discriminate against others based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. So not hiring, providing a hotel room to, allowing to use a pool, renting to, etc. to people based on their religion, race, age, gender, height, weight, marital status, or nation of origin is not OK, but if you think they are gay or trans, then it is OK? Whether one approves of people being LGBTQ+ is irreverent; they're human beings who, in my opinion, deserve equal protections under the law.
I genuinely don't understand how someone can justify the desire to keep discrimination legal. I've never heard of a group of Jehovah's Witnesses picketing a plasma donation center, a group of Church of Christ, Scientists trying to shut down a hospital, or a group of Mormons trying to get a coffee shop shut down; despite their religious objections to those institutions.
How does a person, in good conscious, fight against all Michigan citizens having equal rights under the law? I suppose all gains in civil rights have come with a fight. Our country was born out of a fight for rights, women fought for the right to vote and African Americans fought for Civil Rights. Perhaps it's just the Queer community's turn? I would have hoped we would have learned something from all those past fights.
