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Michigan

Effort to bar LGBTQ discrimination moves ahead in Michigan

Organizers say the development is a milestone.

Credit: AP

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, center, joins with lawmakers and others calling for expanding the state's civil rights law to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, in the Capitol building in Lansing, Mich. The Democratic governor says nobody should be fired from a job or be evicted "based on who they love or how they identify." (AP Photo/David Eggert)

LANSING, Mich. — A ballot drive has turned in more than 483,000 signatures for an initiative to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in Michigan by amending the state’s civil rights law.

If election officials determine roughly 340,000 are valid, the bill would be placed before the Republican-led Legislature, where similar legislation has long stalled.

If lawmakers didn't adopt the measure within 40 days, it would go to a statewide vote in November 2022. Organizers say the development is a milestone.

The proposal would revise the 1976 law to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations.

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