Michigan Commission Says LGBT Bias Illegal Under Existing Law

Michigan’s roughly 350,000 LGBT citizens can now bring employment discrimination complaints to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, following a first-in-the-nation decision to reinterpret state law to prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.

The commission started accepting LGBT bias complaints May 22, after it voted that the Wolverine State’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act covers sexual orientation and gender identity within language prohibiting discrimination “because of sex.” The law protects citizens from discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other public accommodations, and Michigan is the first state commission to reinterpret a state statute to extend these protections to the LGBT ...