Transgender Rights

You Belong. Your Rights Matter. We’re With You.

At the ACLU of Michigan, we believe that every person—regardless of their gender identity—deserves to live with dignity, safety, and freedom. Trans people are our family, our neighbors, our colleagues, and our community.

To those facing discrimination, political attacks, or daily injustice: we see you. We support you. And we will never stop fighting alongside you.

Our work is rooted in a simple truth: trans rights are human rights. That means protecting access to health care, affirming identity, challenging discrimination, and pushing back against policies that seek to erase or harm our trans communities.

The road ahead may be difficult — but you are not walking it alone.

The ACLU champions transgender people’s right to be themselves. We’re fighting discrimination in employment, housing, and public places, including restrooms. We’re working to make sure trans people get the health care they need and we're challenging obstacles to changing the gender marker on identification documents and obtaining legal name changes. We’re fighting to protect the rights and safety of transgender people in prison, jail, and detention facilities as well as the right of trans and gender nonconforming students to be treated with respect at school. Finally, we’re working to secure the rights of transgender parents.

View ACLU National page on Trans Rights

Anti-Trans Bills in Michigan Legislature
In an ongoing effort to attack transgender children, Michigan House lawmakers voted in favor of a resolution asking the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) to ban transgender kids from sports. This is not only cruel and harmful, this resolution asks MHSAA to violate our state’s civil rights laws that protect transgender people from discrimination.

Listen to our full message from LGBTQ+ rights attorney Jay Kaplan.

We’re in court protecting transgender rights

The ACLU of Michigan saw a glaring need and stepped in to fill a dangerous void last week after new Trump administration policies threatened to leave two Oakland County women to fend for themselves after they alleged that they were fired from a restaurant for speaking up about mistreatment of a transgender co-worker, who was also terminated from his job. Until recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the federal agency tasked with investigating employment discrimination and retaliation claims, including those involving gender identity – would have protected the interests of these three fired employees in court. In fact, it did conduct an investigation that determined all three were illegally fired. However, after a lawsuit was filed in 2024 against the Oakland County restaurant that had employed them, a new presidential administration was seated, and the EEOC’s efforts to seek justice disappeared.
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Standing up to tyranny: Corewell Health reverses course on gender-affirming care
The state’s largest medical system, Corewell Health, reversed course and will again provide gender-affirming care for young people under 19. This came after we, and other advocacy organizations, urged the health system to continue providing this lifesaving care.

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With a landmark Supreme Court case on the horizon, transgender people and their families speak out about the freedoms at stake.

The “Freedom To Be” campaign shows transgender people and their families from across the country finding joy and community, grounded in the basic principle that we all deserve the freedom to control our own families, bodies, and lives.

View Campaign