A Senate committee has approved a bill to add LGBTQ protections to Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
There was applause as the vote by the Senate Civil Rights, Public Safety and Judiciary Committee was announced. Democratic state Senator Jeremy Moss is the bill sponsor. He says specific protections for LGBTQ people are long overdue.
“What this signals to those people is they don’t have to suffer in silence and in the shadows anymore, that when they face a wrong that there’s a path to right it.” said Moss.
The next step is a Senate floor vote. Two Republicans voted no or abstained and called for stronger religious exemptions, which Democrats said were unnecessary. The bill would enshrine in law a recent court ruling against a wedding venue that refused to host same-sex weddings.