LGBT Event Planned in Lake Orion

A local group that has formed to support LGBT people in the Lake Orion area has planned its first social event.
It will host an LGBT Social from 6:30-8:30 p.m. May 4 at the C-pub at King's Court Castle in Canterbury Village, 2336 Joslyn Court in Lake Orion. The event will be held in the upper level Gaelic Room.
The social provides an opportunity for LGBT people in the Lake Orion area to meet one another as one step toward building support for the LGBT community in the area. C-pub menu items and beverages will be available for purchase.
The group hosting the social plans a multi-program approach toward supporting LGBT people in the area, including social and educational events and reaching out to community leaders to back anti-discrimination measures that include protections for LGBT residents.
The state's nondiscrimination law, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act — in part named after Melvin L. Larsen, a Republican from neighboring Oxford — currently does not provide anti-discrimination protection for LGBT people although it does for religion, race, color, age, height, weight and marriage status. State legislators have been resistant to adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the list of those protected. It is, therefore, legal in Michigan to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote someone because an employer thinks they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
State law does allow local government to pass such protections, a move advocated by the recently formed local group supporting LGBT people.