Rochester Hills Leaders: We'll Do Our Homework on Civil Rights Bill

Rochester Hills City Councilmembers will do their homework on a proposed resolution that would oppose pending civil rights legislation drafted by their state lawmaker.

Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, introduced House Bill 5039 in October. If approved it would prohibit municipalities from extending special rights to those not covered by the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976.

The Elliott-Larsen Act protects people on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, weight, height, familial or marital status. But it does not offer protection on the basis of sexual orientation.

Many municipalities have approved their own ordinances that extend the act's protections to gays and lesbians. This House bill says municipalities could "not adopt" such ordinances.

On Monday night, to oppose the bill.

Maurer said that because the bill has been drafted by a lawmaker in the city, it tells gay and lesbian residents of Rochester Hills that they are not welcome there. The bill, Maurer said, is a rollback of great strides in the civil rights movement.

"It tells us we should find our bell bottoms we put in the cedar chest years ago," he said.

McMillin has defended the bill as making civil rights protections uniform at a state level.

Councilmember Ravi Yalamanchi asked his colleagues to study the resolution and put it on the agenda of the next council meeting, which is planned for Feb. 13.

The rest of the councilmembers said they would study the House bill and the resolution.

Rochester Hills City Attorney John Staran said this is new territory for the city. "I do not recall this council has ever delved into these areas of regulation," Staran said. "Historically, we have deferred to the state and federal governments."

Ryan Leclerc, a University of Michigan law student and 2006 graduate of , spoke to councilmembers about the resolution.

Leclerc, who is gay, said the bill seeks to insult a group of people who grew up here. "It's bills like these that make me, a budding attorney, want to leave this state," he said. "If it passes, it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

The bill is pending in the state House Judiciary Committee.

Read the text of the House bill here. Read the resolution .

McMillin did not attend the council meeting, but he did hold district office hours before the meeting, where a small group stood in protest of the bill outside the Rochester Hills Municipal Building.

During the office hours, he was questioned about House Bill 5039 and defended his intentions as wanting civil rights ordinances to remain at the state level.