Citing Kalamazoo vote, Mich. House panel sends civil rights law to floor

LANSING — The Michigan House Judiciary Committee Wednesday voted 9-5 to send legislation to the full House to amend civil rights laws in the state to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.

“With the passage in Kalamazoo last night by overwhelming majority of voters of a similar law, it is time to move this bill,” said Judiciary Chairman Mark Meadows, an East Lansing Democrat. On Tuesday, voters in Kalamazoo approved Ordinance 1856, which protects citizens and visitors in the city from discrimination on the basis of, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Meadows also noted President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act late last month, the first time lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been specifically delineated as a protected class under federal law.

The legislation would amend the state’s current civil rights law, titled the Elliot-Larsen Act, to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The bill moved with the votes of eight Democrats on the committee, and one Republican, Tory Rocca of Sterling Heights. Democrat Bettie Scott Cook was absent from the vote. The remaining five Republicans all voted no to move the bill.

Meadows said he us uncertain when — or even if — the Democratic-led House will vote on the legislation. He conceded that political calculus, including trying to keep a Democratic majority in the House after the 2010 election, will play into the decision whether or not to take up the bill. That means, he said, there are some Democrats who are in districts where a vote in favor of the bill “would not be considered helpful for them.”

With the Congress in D.C. moving on similar legislation, called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), Meadows said the move by the Judiciary committee might be more symbolic than necessary. But he added, “We don’t want Michigan to be the Mississippi of our time.”