News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena have been restored. Click here to learn more.

Nessel: Michigan Civil Rights Commission can ignore Schuette opinion

Flickr User Jill Clardy
/
https://flic.kr/p/4VZHDe

Attorney General Dana Nessel says the Michigan Civil Rights Commission does not have to follow a formal opinion released by her predecessor

Last year, while acting as state Attorney General, Bill Schuette issued an opinion that said the commission could not interpret the state's civil rights act to provide protections for LGBTQ people. At the time, the commission said it was going to continue to interpret that phrase that prohibits discrimination “because of sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity anyway. Now Nessel’s office says that’s okay.