Worst for sexual minorities

The Michigan legislature ends its lame-duck session today. They finally came up with a way to fund road maintenance ($1.2B needed a year). Alas, they did it with an increase to the regressive sales tax rather than the more responsible gasoline tax. And since the sales tax is to be raised, voters have to approve it – next May. I just had my car's front end aligned because of a pothole last winter. There is one bright spot in the bill that was passed – the House had passed a version that funded roads by taking more money away from schools so that taxes didn't have to be raised.

I got an email alert saying the Michigan Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by the House just might see a vote in the Senate before the night is out. As of this posting there is no news. I got an alert yesterday calling for protesters to come to the Capitol this afternoon to be a silent protest if it ever came up. The RFRA was supposed to be the companion to an expansion of Michigan's civil rights law to include sexual minorities so that our rights to public accommodation were defined to be less important to the Fundie right to discriminate. Alas, our half of the pair died. And apparently state senators are desperate for it to pass, with only the GOP Majority Leader of the Senate standing in the way. If only he can stand there a few more hours.

In the last couple days there have been voices calling for this bill. They say those claiming it is a license to discriminate are wrong. There's nothing in the bill that would allow that! Where could they get such an idea? Well, let's see now. Might it be because similar bills in other states were all about discrimination? Perhaps because the RFRA was introduced to blunt the inclusion of sexual minorities in the civil rights law? Is it because sponsors of the law can't come up with any other credible scenario for why the law is needed? Yeah, the text of the bill is carefully crafted. Here's the text as passed by the House.



Peter Hammer is a professor in the Wayne State University Law School and discusses the social and economic conditions of sexual minorities in Michigan. He says Michigan has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the five worst states for sexual minorities. Our companions are Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. Such fine company. Which is why we've been hearing "Mich-issippi" lately. And why my sister and her partner want to move to a friendlier state.

Hammer reviews several Michigan laws that prove the animus lawmakers have for sexual minorities. I'll let you read the list. Thankfully, some of the laws have been overturned. Alas, not enough of them.