Ingrid Jacques

The Detroit News

Nearly 40 years ago, Mel Larsen helped push through a law providing protections against racial and most other forms of discrimination. Now, the Republican believes it’s time the law was stretched to cover the sexual orientation of Michigan residents.

“You need to treat everyone with the same dignity that you treat yourself,” says Larsen, who turns 78 this month. “You don’t have a right to discriminate against anybody.”

Larsen, who was an Oakland County lawmaker when he teamed with Democrat Daisy Elliott to author the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, also acknowledges the concerns some GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Jase Bolger, have raised about protecting religious liberty in the process.

Other states that have added sexual orientation to their anti-discrimination laws have included varying degrees of protection for religious beliefs, and it’s an issue that has to be part of the discussion here if an expansion has any hope of passing. Yet the two bills state Democrats have introduced don’t include any caveats for religion.

Larsen expects that to be an essential piece of the debate, but stresses that just like with the original bill, the success of expansion proposals will depend on bipartisanship and compromise.

That’s what Michigan business leaders are seeking. They petitioned the Legislature in the spring to expand the state’s anti-discrimination policy to cover gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. The Michigan Competitive Workforce Coalition wants the law to include specific language shielding individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

This isn’t the first time the discussion has taken place in Michigan, Larsen says. Back in the ’70s, gays pushed unsuccessfully to be included in the act, which passed in 1976. The political support didn’t exist at that time, he said, but he thinks times have changed.

“It’s long overdue to get sexual orientation officially before the Legislature,” says Larsen.

Larsen began his career in education, spending 14 years as a teacher and administrator before going into politics. He served from 1973 to 1978 in the state House.

On leaving the Legislature, he chaired the Michigan Republican Party for four years before turning to private business and lobbying.

Larsen’s legacy is the signature act making it illegal to discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight or familial status or marital status.

Today, 21 states and the District of Columbia have added bans on discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or sexual identity.

Larsen says the key to making these changes to Michigan’s law is strong leadership in the Legislature and bipartisan support.

Those elements were essential to the civil rights bill’s original passage.

“It was truly a bipartisan effort and that makes a big difference,” Larsen says. “That’s what’s lacking today.”

Elliott deserves the most credit for the law’s passage, Larsen says. She was a Democrat from Detroit who believed bipartisan support was essential, and sought a Republican partner.

After reading the legislation, patterned after federal law, Larsen decided to get involved, even though he says some warned him at the time it would be “political suicide.”

“It was the right thing to do,” Larsen says now.

Jim Murray, president of AT&T Michigan and one of the co-chairs of the Workforce Coalition, says more than 60 businesses and organizations have signed the petition, including chambers of commerce from all over the state.

But as much as Murray wants to see this legislation enacted, he’s willing to wait until the Legislature is ready.

“I want a bill that will pass,” he says.

Larsen agrees that passage will require delicate deliberations in the Legislature, that can’t be rushed and won’t be aided if lawmakers are forced to take hard positions early on.

“The definition of politics is the art of compromise,” Larsen says. “Good public policy comes out of debate.”

Ingrid Jacques is deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News.

ijacques@detroitnews.com

@Ingrid_Jacques