Mich. Civil Rights Agency, Attorney General at Odds on LGBT Bias

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission is bucking the Michigan Attorney General and standing by its decision to investigate LGBT discrimination.

Commission Co-Chair Laura Reyes-Kopack spoke on behalf of the commission July 23 and said the commission would stick to its interpretive statement that the word “sex” in Michigan’s civil rights law protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers. Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) issued an opinion July 20 saying the commission didn’t have the authority to extend the law’s protections to gender identity or sexual orientation because that wasn’t part of the legislative intent in the 1970s.

The commission’s ...