By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
DETROIT – In 2004, Michigan's LGBT community united to fight a discriminatory ballot proposal.
This year, they're doing it again.
This year, though, they have friends ranging from both gubernatorial candidates to the Michigan Catholic Conference.
On July 25, representatives from 50 LGBT organizations announced their united opposition to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a proposed amendment to Michigan's constitution that would ban affirmative action.
Speakers at the conference included Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for Triangle Foundation, ACLU of Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss, Leslie Thompson, executive director of Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center; Michelle Brown, a member of the Human Right's Campaign's Board of Governors, and Johnnie Jenkins, co-founder of the Detroit Black Pride Society.
Kosofsky said that he was "honored and elated to stand with my colleagues on behalf of equality."
"The GLBT community knows very well how basic human rights can be assaulted by a deceitful ballot measure. We are here to say, 'No more. We stand against injustice toward any group. Period.'"
"The unified voice of the LGBT community in Michigan is a pivotal moment and of great importance to women and minorities," said Moss, who is also a Steering Committee member of One United Michigan, the statewide coalition formed to defeat the MCRI. "The coalition opposing this ballot measure increases each day while those supporting it seem to be limited to a few Californians."
"This ban will affect all of us," Moss added. "We cannot let this outsider [Ward Connerly, the California resident behind the ballot proposal] come in and tell Michigan how to run its shop."
All of the speakers noted the harm that the MCRI would do to women and minorities if passed.
The MCRI would "eliminate scholarships for women and minorities and put gender-specific health initiatives at risk," said Thompson.
"It will entrench inequality, put an end to pay equity initiatives and programs that encourage women and girls in math and the sciences," said Moss.
Referencing Proposal 2, which banned marriage for same-sex couples in Michigan, Brown said, "It was wrong to single out a group of citizens for discrimination in 2004, and it's wrong today."
The LGBT community leaders pledged their organizations to action, not just words.
Kosofsky said that both national and statewide LGBT organizations had pledged staff time and money. "National organizations will spend thousands, if not tens of thousands," to defeat the measure, he said.
Thompson said that one of the tasks of her organization's new Civic Engagement Coordinator, Vanessa Marr, will be to organize opposition to the MCRI and that Affirmations is planning a Sept. 17 town hall as well as a voter registration campaign and a door canvass.
Grace McClelland, executive director of the Ruth Ellis Center, said that her organization has a "social justice responsibility" to educate the Center's youth about the proposal and that her organization would be working to educate their volunteers and donors as well.
And Trisha Stein, executive director of One United Michigan, confirmed that her organization has received both staff and financial support from state and national LGBT organizations including HRC and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
"It's so crystal clear that this initiative is bad for Michigan," Stein said. "When you have a diverse coalition where you have gay and lesbian representatives at the same table that you have religious leaders, business, labor – I think it's just really crystal clear what this proposal means and that it's bad for Michigan when everyone, regardless of what their beliefs are and what their political affiliations are, are on the same side."
