On the heels of proposed bill HB 5039, which would ban state agencies and local governments from protecting the rights of LGBTQ citizens, a group called Unity Michigan has begun the “Don’t change yourself. Change the law,” campaign. The campaign is focused on broadening equal opportunity legislation to include and protect the LGBTQ community.
If successful, this would enable more LGBTQ people, to acquire a job based on their skills and avoid wrongful termination based on their personal life.
Duke Beard, AHD for the Towers at Eastern Michigan University, thinks Unity Michigan’s proposal must be recognized, especially because other states have had legislation protecting the LGBTQ community for decades.
“It’s a civil rights issue and Michigan is extremely behind,” he said. “I come from a state where that has been in place since God knows when. Washington was one of the first states to actually implement that.”
Luisa Scavo, a sophomore majoring in anthropology, has several friends in the LGBTQ community and applauded Unity Michigan’s efforts.
“I think it’s common sense and I think it’s about time,” Scavo said. “It’s a basic civil right. You should have the right to be whatever you want to be, whatever you are, without facing discrimination from anybody. It shouldn’t limit your opportunities.”
Bill Twarog has been a bartender at Ann Arbor’s aut Bar for roughly nine years. As an openly gay individual, he has experienced severe discrimination in the workplace. He’s even been fired from managerial positions purely for being gay.
“I was working a job and another manager felt it was up to her to let everyone know that I was gay, without my knowing,” Twarog said. “We had a new employee and I nudged him on the shoulder and asked him how he was doing. I got fired for ‘unwanted touching.’ They said I
violated company policy and procedure.”
One of the controversial aspects of Unity Michigan’s proposal is expanding the equal opportunity legislation to include the LGBTQ community would protect transgendered and transsexual people. Despite the social progress activists have made in deconstructing the taboos associated with being gay and more broadly establishing the rights of gay people, the trans community remains subjugated and socially marginalized.
Hillary Osborne, a sophomore majoring in Japanese, is officially diagnosed with gender identity disorder, the prerequisite diagnosis for gender reassignment surgery. Due to her gender expression, she has felt discouraged from seeking employment at most establishments.
“I typically just avoid the situation if I have to specify that type of thing on the job application, so I’ve only had one job my entire life,” Osborne said. “It’s hard to have to specify your birth gender and go in identifying as something else. It causes a mess.”
Matt Honig, a senior majoring in communications technology, is also transgendered. He expressed similar trepidation about seeking employment in Michigan.
“I’ve been afraid to apply for jobs because I wasn’t sure that I’d be protected. It’s been kind of scary,” Honig said. “I think that if this legislation were passed, I could feel safe trying to get a job.”
Some of the cases of professional discrimination against trans people are tragic. In some instances, people worked hard for a company for years but were promptly fired upon disclosing their transgender or transsexual identity.
“I have a good friend,” Twarog said. “She was working at a plant and a fellow coworker felt that it was her duty to inform the management that she was using the woman’s bathroom, even though she had gone through the complete transition. She was ultimately let go for that after working there for over 10 years.”
In other cases, being forthright has kept highly qualified trans people from even being able to acquire a job.
Beard shared the story of a trans woman in Michigan who lost a job opportunity simply due to
her trans identity:
“She had a job offer from a school. But they dug into her past and found out that once upon a time she was a man. Then, without reason, they offered the job to someone else. It gets very underhanded when there’s no protection in place. It allows the personal biases to get involved.”
Beard explained this would not have happened if proper legislation were enacted.
“I have a friend who is trans in Washington,” Beard said. “Because she is protected, she can be very open about it. Now she’s got a counseling job with at-risk youth and she’s able to share her personal information with her employer without fear of repercussions.”
The LGBTQ population in Michigan has been estimated to be roughly 251,000. This is only an estimate because, except for population and economic data concerning same-sex couples who live together, the census does not provide data about the LGBTQ community. Even if this estimate were generous, the reforms Unity Michigan is proposing would improve the quality of life for a significant portion of the population of Michigan.
Erin Greenblat, a senior majoring in Spanish education, expressed outrage this type of legislation
hasn’t already been passed.
“I think it’s ridiculous that these people are not already protected,” Greenblat said. “I feel that there should be no reason, other than your skill level, that you ought be unable to get a job or to keep your job.”
It is a precarious time for gay rights in Michigan. Despite the work of activists, gay marriage is still illegal and the bill that helped motivate Unity Michigan’s movement, HB 5039, has been read to the assembly, filed, and referred to a committee. Explicitly, the bill prohibits state agencies or local governments from adopting any ordinance, rule, regulation or policy that includes, as a protected class, any classification not protected at the state level.
Despite the ambiguity of HB 5039, it’s been widely accused of being conceived specifically to impede the progress of LGBTQ rights. If passed, it would prohibit universities, local governments, public school districts and other government organizations from protecting the rights of LGBTQ citizens. This would invalidate legislation in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. It would also nullify longstanding policies at EMU.
Classifications protected at the state level currently include religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight and marital status. As currently written, the law won’t protect an LGBTQ citizen from discrimination, but it will protect a citizen from being discriminated based on his or her height or weight.
In summarizing her feelings, Osborne expressed exasperation that was echoed by all who were interviewed: “We’re people. We shouldn’t have to push to be recognized as such in the eyes of the law.”
