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Protect Michigan's Pro-LGBTQ+ Legislature This November

Community voices: Michigan LGBTQ+ leaders weigh in

Rep. Laurie Pohutsky

Ahead of the 2024 general election, Pride Source asked community leaders to weigh in on the important issues facing the Michigan LGBTQ+ community. Michigan State Rep. and Speaker Pro Tempore Laurie Pohutsky, who represents Michigan’s 17th district, urges readers to protect the gains our community has made over the past few years under state Democratic leadership by voting blue up and down the ballot. The balance of the House is in play in 2024. Find other community perspectives here.

In 2022, Michigan elected its first Democratic trifecta in 40 years when it secured Democratic majorities in the State House and Senate and retained our Democratic governor. We also elected the largest legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus in history, with seven out members.

This trifecta allowed us to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to secure explicit protections for the LGBTQ+ community, ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors, ban the LGBTQ+ panic defense and secure funding for LGBTQ+ health centers. While many other states are playing defense against or even passing laws that actively harm our community, Michigan stands as a leader in LGBTQ+ protections. It’s worth noting, however, that these policies have been years or even decades in the making and only finally made it past the finish line because of a willing Legislature and governor.



That trifecta is on the line with this year’s election, where the Michigan House is on the ballot.

Presidential election years can be exhausting for all of us. The fatigue of constant election ads compounded with the existential dread at the possibility that a candidate who does not think our community is deserving of basic rights, much less necessary protections, could be elected to the presidency can make anyone want to tune out. And that fatigue gets even worse the lower down the ballot a race is.

The simple fact of the matter is that most people don’t know who their state representative is, much less whether or not they support LGBTQ+ rights. However, that state representative is far more likely to impact your day-to-day life than the president and these elections must be treated with just as much gravity as the presidential election.

I want to be perfectly clear: It is imperative that we elect Kamala Harris as president this November; but it is just as imperative that the Michigan House retain its Democratic and pro-LGBTQ+ majority. 

If the House falls under Republican control, all forward progress will halt. It would also set us up for a potential decline in LGBTQ+ rights in future elections. The successes that our community have so recently achieved can just as easily be stripped away, once again.

It was only two years ago when I myself was gaveled down on the floor for referring to myself as bisexual during a floor speech. Just two years have elapsed between the censoring of queer legislators and the passage of landmark LGBTQ+ policy. A Republican majority would ensure not only that Michigan’s policies do not allow it to be the welcoming state we know it to be but also that the state’s out, queer legislators are silenced from publicly advocating for their community.

I was first elected in 2018, and during that election and every one since, I have told voters that each election is the most important one of our lifetimes. That isn’t a lie or hyperbole; it is simply more true with each successive election. This year’s is no different. The stakes are the highest they’ve ever been, no matter how low the office is on the ballot. So while we are rightfully focused on not going back and electing Vice President Harris, let’s also make sure we don’t go back in Michigan and retain our Democratic State House.

Visit vote411.org and michiganvoting.org to learn about the candidates and issues on your ballot and to make a voting plan.



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