I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
LANSING — A crowd of nearly 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their supporters protested on the steps of the Michigan Capitol on Tuesday night in opposition to a California Supreme Court ruling which upheld a ban on same-sex marriage approved by Golden State voters last November.
Organizers said the event was “to call for absolute equality” in the state of Michigan for LGBT persons, with some advocates calling for an effort to put a new marriage equality amendment on the 2012 ballot.
“What a disappointing day this is in American history,” said Mitchell Rivard, president of the Michigan State University College Democrats. “The California Supreme Court reminded us today that we cannot sit back and wait for our system of government to do the right thing.”
Building on Rivard’s call to action, Julie Nemecek, co-director of Michigan Equality, a statewide LGBT civil rights advocacy organization, made a promise of marriage equality in Michigan a reality by 2012.
“I am here today to tell you that … marriage equality is coming to Michigan,” she said. “I am confident a resolution to approve bring marriage equality will be approved in the 2012 election, if you help.”
Nemecek said in order to achieve that goal, activists would have to collect over 500,000 valid signatures on a proposal to remove the state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage approved by Michigan voters in 2004.
“What this is about is this was a referendum on our lives. It was a referendum on whether we are full citizens or whether we are second class citizens,” said Denise Brogan-Kantor, chair of the board of trustees of Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based LGBT advocacy group which focuses on hate crimes. “Ladies and gentleman, this is a hate crime. This is a hate crime against us. We have to do more to protect us.”
Kantor also echoed Nemecek’s call for an effort to put a marriage equality proposal before voters in 2012.
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