Elections Board OKs Language in Gay Rights Petition

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LANSING, MI – A state elections board on Tuesday approved the initial procedural step necessary to place a statewide ballot question to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity on the November 2016 general election ballot.

Supporters still must gather 315,000 valid voter signatures by July 1 after the Michigan Board of State Canvassers approved the form and wording of the petition, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The Fair Michigan gay rights group is backing the petition to amend the state’s Constitution, which currently protects citizens against discrimination based on religion, race, color or national origin.

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The Republican-controlled Legislature has balked at expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections based on gender, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation.

“This action is a major step toward eliminating job discrimination in Michigan and ensuring everyone is treated equally and fairly,” Richard McClellan, co-chair of Fair Michigan and a Republican Lansing attorney, told The Detroit News. “This will allow Michiganders to truly take control of an issue that means so much to our shared social and economic future.”

“Fair Michigan wants to ensure that all of Michigan, including women, are constitutionally protected from discrimination on the job, in the housing market or while dealing with their government,” Liedel said, according to an account by MLive.com.

Though gay rights groups agree the act should be expanded, they disagree that the ballot box is the best path to equality.

“Having setbacks in the Legislature is a lot different than losing a referendum,” AT&T Michigan President Jim Murray, who is gay, told The Detroit News.

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“If you lose at the ballot box, you are finished for decades,” Murray, a former Republican legislative aide, said. ‘There would be a boat load of money spent in opposition with an uncertain outcome. It’s a huge, unacceptable gamble.”

Equality Michigan executive director Stephanie White said she’s analyzed the data and worries “there isn’t a path to win in 2016 at the ballot box,” she told the Free Press.