News & Commentary

Today at 2 p.m., this Wednesday Nov. 4, 2015, I'll be sitting in federal Judge Nancy Edmond's court—room 858, located at 231 W. Lafayette Blvd. in downtown Detroit—watching the ACLU of Michigan, in partnership with the ACLU National, argue one of Michigan's most important LGBT cases in history—Love v. Johnson. 

There is a famous story about President Franklin D. Roosevelt where in a policy meeting he purportedly said: "Alright Gentlemen, I agree with you, now make me do it."

A little more than a week ago, the United States Department of Health and Human Services took a major step toward redressing the long history of policies and practices that marginalize transgender people in our health-care system. 

At first glance, some might think that religious liberty and LGBTQ equality are mutually exclusive, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, as advocates for social justice, we believe these two ideals are intertwined. As people of strong but different personal faiths, we share the belief that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and acceptance. This is what our Christian and Muslim faiths teach us, and it’s a central truth of all faiths. That same truth dwells in the hearts of everyone who seeks equality for all, regardless of their spiritual beliefs. So we’re deeply troubled by the ways “religious liberty” is being used as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ people in the public sphere. We fully support religious freedom—a right guaranteed by the Constitution—but the freedom to worship without interference does not give any of us the right to discriminate. Especially in Michigan, this is a growing concern. A number of so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills are being introduced and passed here, including a law that allows taxpayer-funded faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people and others based on religious objections. Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling making marriage equality the law nationwide will only accelerate attempts to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. This is especially true in Michigan, where we do not have a statewide law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people. That’s why The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry and the ACLU of Michigan—in partnership with other faith and equality organizations—are hosting a rare gathering of clergy and lay leaders from all religious traditions at the “Liberating Religious Liberty” Symposium on September 10 in Detroit. The goal of the day-long workshop is to address concerns about the ways the concept of religious liberty is being used to justify discrimination against the LGBTQ community and how to counteract those arguments. We’ll learn from experts and exchange ideas about ways to engage people of faith in speaking out in support of LGBTQ rights. Some of the people of faith who will be participating have always been open-hearted to the LGBTQ community, while others have been on a journey to reach a place of understanding and acceptance. We all start from where we are, but by coming together we can find the common ground that exists across all faiths and social justice organizations—the core truths that encourage us to accept and respect everyone as equals. The workshop is open only to members of the clergy and lay leaders in all faith traditions, but the public is welcome to attend an evening reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The reception will feature a keynote address by Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families. The keynote will be followed by a Q&A, and the reception will conclude with an open discussion about next steps for community organizing. Like the workshop, the free reception will be held at the Wayne State University McGregor Memorial Conference Center in Detroit, and we hope you will join us. We firmly believe that people of faith have a unique opportunity to stand up for the true meaning of religious liberty—the right to live out our faith without interference—while at the same time standing up for the rights of the LGBTQ community. We’re proud to work together to help educate people of faith and our entire community on an issue that will bring us one step closer to our ultimate goal of full equality for all, everywhere in this country. For more information or to RSVP for the free reception visit religiouslibertyforall.org By Rev. Roland Stringfellow, Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit, and Rana Elmir, Deputy Director of the ACLU of Michigan.

I've served as the president of the ACLU of Michigan for three years, and it has been an enormous pleasure to have this role during such an important and exciting time for the organization. As I came on board, we were just finishing an $8 million fundraising campaign which had allowed us to expand our staff to 23, purchase our building on Woodward, and open a staffed office in Grand Rapids to complement our Detroit headquarters and legislative office in Lansing.

As debate over "religious freedom restoration acts," or RFRAs, heat up around the country and here in Michigan, the threat of religion being used to discriminate grows exponentially. And not only would businesses, nonprofit groups and individuals be empowered to legally discriminate in the name of their faiths, as we've previously warned. That discrimination could come at the expense of the common good. Here's how....

In the wake of two recent attacks against transgender women in Detroit, the ACLU of Michigan is again calling on legislators to update state civil-rights protections and hate-crime laws to include safeguards for gender identity and sexual orientation. Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan LGBT Project, issued the following statement today:

Despite the recent landmark Supreme Court ruling in favor of the freedom to marry, the road to full equality for everyone in our state continues to be pocked with obstacles. Few obstacles currently loom as large as the potential danger of SB 4, the "religious freedom restoration act" (RFRA) now being debated in the state legislature.

With summertime in full swing, the House is on break through August—but the Senate will be working a least through the end of June. Senate leadership scheduled the summer session so that they could advance a road funding plan, and if that plan is approved I suspect they will take the remainder of the summer off as well.