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In Trump era, Michigan advocates say protecting LGBT rights has to be a state issue

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published May 31, 2017 at 5:04 PM EDT

With no federal law protecting civil rights of LGBT people, Advocates in Michigan want have introduced state legislation to expand civil rights protections.

Stateside's conversation with attorney Dana Nessel.

Democrats in Lansing are taking another run at expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Democratic State Rep. Jon Hoadley of Kalamazoo and Senator Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor have introduced bills to expand civil rights protection to people who are LGBT.

Detroit-based attorney Dana Nessel is recognized as one of the leading litigators of LGBT issues in Michigan.

Nessel spoke about the lack of state or federal laws protecting LGBT people in Michigan as the reason for expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

She said there’s no federal law protecting the civil rights of LGBT people, and there’s no state protections either.

“I think that the state is the place where this has to occur,” Nessel said. “The few protections that existed of any kind on a federal level were really those that were imposed by the Obama administration, and all of those protections are now being rolled-back by the Trump administration.”

Nessel said expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act would be good for the bottom-lines of Michigan businesses.

Listen to the entire conversation with Attorney Dana Nessel above.(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast oniTunes,Google Play, or with thisRSS link)