A Harsh Reality
It's no mystery why 17-year-old Ellie Nagel-Bennett is so passionate about the Equality Act: she's experienced discrimination and homophobia first-hand, despite not identifying as LGBTQ herself.
"You know that your parents are sinful, right? You know that your parents are going to hell," Nagel-Bennett recalls being told by a classmate when they were both 6.
"That was the moment I first cognitively realized my parents were different," Nagel-Bennett said, adding that she was raised in the church to believe that God loves everyone. Because of that early experience, Nagel-Bennett said she began to doubt that her parents should even be together. But by middle school, she came to the realization that her family didn't need to fit society's preconceptions.
And although Nagel-Bennett learned self-acceptance, she said she recognized as she was growing up how she and her parents were sometimes treated as a family. She was also aware her parents had been fired from careers in higher education.
"Growing up in the United States, and in Michigan specifically, it was hard in my earlier years," she said. "Because people didn't understand how I had lesbian women for parents and they thought a family was a mom and a dad."
Now a senior at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, she said she remembers her family specifically being discriminated against in public places, such as restaurants or public events, where they might be asked to sit in the back or even told there was no space left — when clearly there was.
The Equality Act: Real-World Impact
Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives this March, the Equality Act is a bill whose passage would prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit and the jury system. This would occur by amending the Civil Rights Act.
The Equality Act would effectively deem obsolete the patchwork of protections that exist for individual states and municipalities. For Michiganders, the decades-long battle to amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act would be a thing of the past; passing non-discrimination ordinances city by city would no longer be the news of the day.
For families like Nagel-Bennett's, this would mean turning them away from a restaurant or hotel would be illegal, and her parents would have recourse if they were terminated from their jobs for being gay. And with such protections codified in law, perhaps that would ultimately lead to wider acceptance — and less cruelty of the kind that Nagel-Bennett experienced when she was 6.
Ellie Goes to Washington
It wasn't just Nagel-Bennett's negative experiences growing up that launched her trajectory to become an outspoken advocate for the Equality Act. In terms of equal rights, there were the pride festivals she attended from a young age, but the activism piece really came a few years ago, following the Parkland, Florida, shootings when she saw people her age speaking out for the first time. She, too, became involved in student groups that advocated for common sense gun legislation.
Then, during the 2018 midterms, Nagel-Bennett volunteered for Matt Longjohn's campaign for Congress, a race that was won by Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, a 16-term incumbent. When one of the high school activists she met during the campaign invited her to lobby in Washington, D.C. for the Equality Act, she was eager to sign up. And after some initial protest from her parents, this was a last-minute request, Nagel-Bennett said they were in full support — provided that she pay for her own airfare.
"It was amazing," Nagel-Bennett said. "It really made me realize that even though I am 17, and everyone else there … had full-time jobs and families and everything, that I could still make a difference."
After meeting representatives from the Human Rights Campaign during the trip, Nagel-Bennett returned to Kalamazoo and has been hard at work advocating for the Equality Act ever since. To that end, she said she's presented to various high school and Young Democrat groups in Kalamazoo and Portage, to educate them on the Equality Act and provide opportunities to get involved — even though they can't vote.
"I think it's important to talk to people who don't necessarily have that outlet to voice their opinion quite yet," she said. "It's been a really positive response."
While some were hesitant to write letters to Congressman Upton to share personal stories, many have made phone calls and filled out postcards, she said.
In Michigan, HRC's work on behalf of the Equality Act has focused on the west side of the state, where the organization is targeting Republican Congress members Justin Amash, whose district includes Grand Rapids, and Fred Upton, whose district includes Kalamazoo.
Regarding the meetings they had with staffers of the two west Michigan representatives when she was lobbying in D.C., Nagel-Bennett said she could tell the individual from Amash's office seemed disinterested. The response from Upton's aid, however, was different.
"[She] was definitely understanding of what we were saying," Nagel-Bennett said, adding that the response they received afterward from Upton as well confirmed that he had a comprehensive understanding of the Equality Act — although he's not expected to vote in favor of it. However, Upton's dilemma in opposing the legislation while hoping to get reelected is that his only opposition right now is Michigan state Rep. Jon Hoadley, who is openly gay.
What's Ahead
The Equality Act is scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives on May 15 or 16, and Nagel-Bennett, like many others, predicts it will pass.
"We have the majority to pass it now," she said. "But I think that the Senate is where our struggle will be. The party which favors equality legislation, especially when it comes to LGBTQ protections, is in the minority in the Senate right now."
But Nagel-Bennett doesn't sound too discouraged. If the bill dies in the Senate, she said, "we'll just have to keep introducing new bills."
What's next for Nagel-Bennett? By the 2020 election, she'll be old enough to vote and studying in her first year of college at Michigan State University's James Madison College.
"And in the 2020 election cycle you will probably hear my name," she said, "because I will be working tirelessly to elect a president who represents my ideals and not the ideals of … frankly, everything that's been plaguing myself and my family."
As for the here and now, Nagel-Bennett said her parents and friends have been largely supportive of her activism and advocacy for the Equality Act, although she's received some negative feedback in the form of "liberal nicknames" from some peers at school who don't really know her.
"It's disheartening to see people make just ad hominem attacks at me, for something that I'm standing up for, even though it's something that's not part of my identity, right?" Nagel-Bennett said. "But even when they do make those comments, I know they are definitely ill-informed because the Equality Act is something we can all get behind. It's just common sense. And it's unfortunate that there are still people in the community and also legislators who don't realize that we're just trying to get protections for everybody."
