Tonight's Statement to the Jackson City Council
Earlier this year, Jackson Together, with the support of the HRC, Jackson Area Civil Rights Awareness Association, PFLAG, and more, asked once again for this City Council to take up the issue of a Non-Discrimination ordinance to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It was tabled. We were asked to support this tabling of the motion by our mayor and vice mayor and Equality Michigan, the reason being that they thought that the state legislature, at the behest of the governor, would amend Elliott-Larsen to include LGBT people, and that would provide some of the same protections as our NDO at the state level. That change did not occur, as you know. The Mayor and Vice Mayor pledged to us that this issue would be brought back up in December if Elliott-Larsen was not amended. I’m here to hold you to that promise. The people of Jackson have waited too long for equality. We’ve heard some nonsense about how this is not doable, and we’ve heard some nonsense t