Pro-LGBTQ officials running Michigan is a sea change

Michigan was one of just four states that took its same-sex marriage fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 — and lost.

That was the handiwork of GOP then-Attorney General Bill Schuette, who also opposed non-discrimination measures for LGBTQ people.

But then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a fellow Republican with a moderate reputation, had his own history of fighting LGBTQ rights, from initially saying the first same-sex marriages performed in 2014 weren’t legal to signing GOP legislation allowing adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples.

“It was very frustrating,” recalls state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who’s sponsored LGBTQ anti-discrimination legislation. “We had this assurance that, you know, the [former] governor was tepidly supportive, and it was signaled to us in many different ways. And then he signed on to the adoption discrimination bills, and that was a real letdown for people who had assumed that somehow he was this moderate on social issues.

“… We were wondering, ‘Why can’t this guy who’s supposedly a moderate actually push for the issues that we were told that he cared about?’ So we never really had an ally in Rick Snyder, and he really wanted to straddle this line. And I’m sure, you know, when his memoir comes out and he talks about this, he’s going to hail himself as a champion, you know, for this, because he once mentioned it — sort of — in a [2014] State of the State address. But, no. We never had an ally in Rick Snyder.”

But with Democrats sweeping every top statewide office in 2018, it was quite the sea change — especially for LGBTQ rights.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been a strong ally, backing LGBTQs to be added to Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and becoming the first governor to declare June Pride Month. Moss says she’s “fighting for this as if she’s a member of our community.”

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also support LGBTQ rights, with the former slated to speak at Michigan Pride in Lansing Saturday and the former attending Motor City Pride last weekend.   

And by now, many people well beyond Michigan know that Attorney General Dana Nessel is the state’s first openly top gay officeholder (there was even a writeup in the Jerusalem Post).

Nessel told the Advance she first came out in her mid-20s while she was a Wayne County assistant prosecutor in the 1990s. She said that part of it was that she’s “a very, very bad liar … it was hard to continually try to keep your lies straight about who you’re spending time with.” And the Plymouth Democrat said there also was “a little bit of outing, too,” noting she was the only openly gay person in the office at the time.

In 2013, Nessel first became nationally known for representing a Hazel Park couple, Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, against Schuette in one of the same-sex marriage suits that was fused into the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Obergefell v. Hodges.

Nessel, the mother of twin boys, then started the LGBTQ advocacy group Fair Michigan, which is now headed by her wife, Alanna Maguire, before successfully running for attorney general in 2018.

The Advance talked with Nessel during Pride Month about the difference having pro-LGBTQ state officials has made, the latest Elliott-Larsen expansion push, and how her sexual identity has been covered in the media, particularly by conservative outlets.

The following are excerpts from the interview:

Michigan Advance: There’s been a real sea change in Michigan this Pride month that we have statewide elected officials who support LGBTQ rights. And the last time we had a Democratic governor [Jennifer Granholm] was a much different time where she, at the time, didn’t even support same-sex marriage. And obviously you are about a 180-degree turn from Bill Schuette, who held your job before. Is that palpable in any way as you’re having conversations with people about LGBTQ rights that there’s been such a change, not just with you, but with other Democrats in office?

Nessel: Oh, absolutely. The excitement and the relief that people express to have the likes of Gretchen Whitmer as our governor. And the thing that I find so amazing about Gretchen Whitmer and that I always have, is she is pretty unabashed about her support. There’s just no hesitation. There’s no equivocation in terms of her support for the LGBTQ community. Not in the slightest.

And what we’re seeing is that’s true now for frankly most Democrats that are in office. And, actually, if you do seem to equivocate on those issues, I think you lose support, not just among Democrats, but really independents as well, and even some Republicans.

… When I look at the events of the last few days in terms of the support for the new proposal to amend Elliott-Larsen, I think that it’s really unwise at this point for most electeds to oppose that.

AG will offer opinion, but says Legislature should ban LGBTQ discrimination

And now does that mean that we’re going to get a vote on it? Well, no, not if our majority leader, [Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake)], and our speaker, [Lee Chatfield (R-Levering)], don’t want it to be voted on. But even for Republicans, I think that is becoming more of a non-issue.

And I think especially because the business community at large understands how important the notion of equal rights for the LGBTQ community really is for the economy of our state. And that’s where you get young people who don’t want to stay in our state because they think we’re backwards, or we have problems recruiting young people who are very talented and skilled and would be a great fit for all kinds of important jobs in our state. They don’t want to come here because of that.

Business leaders in our state and corporate America [recognize] that. And so it just, again, I think our electeds understand that it just makes good sense, both from a business model perspective and also, of course, on a humanitarian level.

AG will offer opinion, but says Legislature should ban LGBTQ discrimination

But going back to what you said earlier, yeah, there’s so much excitement out there about people like Gov. Whitmer and their new and fresh perspective on equal rights for the community.

Michigan Advance: Given the fact that support for LGBTQ rights is a mainstream Democratic Party position, do you ever feel like in media coverage of you that mentions your sexual identity is unnecessary? Gov. Gretchen Whitmer supports the same rights as you do, but her sexuality is never mentioned.

Nessel: Right. Well that’s a good point. Boy, it does come up a lot, it seems. And let’s face it, the vast majority of the news items that involve my work as attorney general don’t involve LGBTQ rights. A portion, of course, of the work that we do involves that community, but the vast majority does not.

And it seems suspect and strange to me that you would mention the gender of the person I’m married to in discussing my views on Line 5 [the Enbridge oil pipeline] or consumer protection issues or anything else.

Yeah, I think that there’s good and bad in that. One is, I think that for some of the media who mention it, they do it intentionally because in their mind they are disparaging me in some way. And there’s still that mindset there.

But the positive part about it, though, is for people to get used to somebody who’s in this position of authority in this state, who’s the top lawyer for a state of 10 million people. And to understand that my sexual orientation or the gender of the person I’m married to just has absolutely nothing to do with my day-to-day job and the work that I do on behalf of residents in this state.

And I think that’s a good message to send, frankly, to the children of our state who are growing up and who may identify as gay or bisexual or transgender, or what have you, and want to feel as though they can have a real future and they can be whatever they want when they grow up. And to see that it doesn’t have to be a hindrance to them pursuing their goals. So maybe it’s not bad from that perspective. It’s just that sometimes, depending on who the author is of the article that I’m reading, sometimes I question their motivation.

Michigan Advance: Which media do you feel use it to disparage you?

Nessel: Well, I would say that some of the more conservative media outlets seem to mention it a lot.

Michigan Advance: Perhaps the Detroit News editorial page?

Nessel: That’s one of them. Yes. I’m always suspect whenever I see myself labeled as ‘Lesbian Michigan Attorney General.’ I guess if I’m the grand marshal at a Pride parade, then maybe it makes sense. But when I’m talking about a data breach where people’s identities have been stolen from a Fortune 500 company, I don’t see how that’s relevant. And, of course, when it’s attached to my title, it’s just suspicious to me.

Advance reporter Derek Robertson contributed to this story.