LGBT rights ballot drive officially dead after appeal denied

[Libtards Can't Stop Thinking About Trump]

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday declined
to hear the appeal of an LGBTQ-rights ballot committee that
contended officials wrongly disqualified tens thousands of voter
signatures it submitted for an initiative to prohibit discrimination
based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The decision, issued in a short order, came months after the Board
of State Canvassers declined to certify the petitions. Election
officials had determined Fair and Equal Michigan had about 263,000
valid signatures, roughly 76,000 short.

The proposal would have revised the state’s 1976 civil rights law to
prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender
identity in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Organizers wanted to place the measure before the Republican-led
Legislature, where similar legislation has long stalled. If
lawmakers did not act, it would have gone to a statewide vote in
November 2022.

“While we are disappointed that the court won’t act to recognize
legally-valid signatures thrown out by the state, it’s clear the
best opportunity to achieve LGBTQ equal rights in Michigan is to
place full focus on Attorney General Dana Nessel’s historic case
currently before the Michigan Supreme Court,” Fair and Equal
Michigan Co-Chair Trevor Thomas said in a statement.

The court previously agreed to consider whether Michigan’s existing
ban against sex discrimination covers sexual orientation and gender
identity. The lawsuit was filed by Rouch World, a Sturgis-based
wedding venue and park, and Marquette-based Uprooted Electrolysis
after they refused services to a same-sex couple and a transgender
woman who subsequently filed complaints with the state Department of
Civil Rights.

The companies sued before the agency issued its findings.

In 2018, the department began processing complaints of
discrimination against LGBT people after the state Civil Rights
Commission issued an interpretive statement. It said that
discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
is a form of sexual discrimination outlawed under Michigan law.

A Court of Claims judge last December agreed that gender identity
discrimination is sexual discrimination but ruled the opposite for
sexual orientation discrimination, saying he was bound by a 1993
state appeals court decision. The state Supreme Court will consider
whether the state’s current law protects against sexual orientation
discrimination.

“It’s long past time for our state to recognize sexual orientation
as protected from discrimination under the law,” Nessel, a Democrat,
said last week after her office filed a brief in the case.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal civil rights
law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination
in employment. Supporters of the Michigan measure have said it would
protect against discrimination in housing and public accommodations
and provide broader employment protections than federal law
provides.

https://apnews.com/article/business-discrimination-michigan-
legislature-gender-identity-5fd888864d52d91d34ca69e906bb9f78