Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Friday applauded the Michigan state police for expanding its category of hate crimes to include gender identity.
The FBI began using gender identity as a category for hate crimes in 2013.
Their data show that nationally gender-identity related hate crimes have more than doubled since 2014.
Kelly Rossman-McKinney is with the Attorney General’s Office. She said in Michigan state police haven’t been catologing hate crimes against transgender or gender non-conforming persons.
“And it really is such an important step in the rise of awareness of hate crimes that are specific to gender identity.”
State police made the change to include gender identity among its list of hate-crimes in April. That list already included race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and ethnicity.
State police officials did not respond to our request for comment on why the category was not added sooner.
In a written statement Attorney General Dana Nessel said the new datapoint will “shed light on the types of hate crimes the transgender community faces.”