(Image source from: WXYZ.com)
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Friday said that state law does not prohibit discrimination against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) people, declaring a commission's interpretation to be invalid while stating that only the Legislature or voters can spread out the law to render such protections.
Schuette issued his opinion at the request of GOP legislative leaders. The complaints began processing by the Civil Rights Commission subsequently releasing an interpretative statement that said discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation or gender identity is a sort of "sex" Favoritism illegitimate under the state's 1976 civil rights law.
Schuette wrote that while the importance of the issue "is not lost on this office, the power to change Michigan law only lies with the Legislature ... or the people themselves through the initiative."
The ruling drew unfavorable judgment from Democrats.
According to liberal group Progress Michigan, Schuette "is siding with discrimination and bigotry," while Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed called Schuette "Michigan's discriminator-in-chief" in a tweet.
The state Department of Civil Rights said it was reviewing the opinion and anticipated the committee to discourse the regnant at its succeeding meeting on Monday.
"We will continue taking and processing complaints, but we will not begin investigating those complaints until after the commission provides us with direction," agency director Agustin Arbulu said in a statement.
Overgrowing civil rights protections for LGBT citizens, Democrats and Republicans have drawn-out at odds. The assorted views have likewise been offered by outside alliance on the commission's duty and authority in wake of conflicting federal rulings on whether LGBT-based discrimination in the line of work, living accommodations and public accommodations is forbidden.
A federal appeals court this week reaffirmed its move that workers are not secured against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The committee, quoting another federal appellate conclusion, had said continuing to interpret the term "sex" much restrictively "would itself be discriminatory."
But in his opinion, Schuette said while the state's anti-discrimination law does not define the term, it was understood in 1976 to refer to the biological differences between males and females - "not the concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity."
By Sowmya Sangam
