Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she has never wavered on transgender rights despite calls for Democrats to back away from them. Ahead of Saturday’s Human Rights Campaign dinner, she cited wins in swing-state Michigan and urged allies to support LGBTQ+ people.
In 2023, Whitmer signed an expansion of Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act explicitly protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in employment, housing, education and public accommodations. She said the measure, which she had worked on as a state lawmaker, reached her desk after Democrats won control of both chambers of the Legislature.
The debate has included advice from centrist group Third Way for candidates to avoid terms such as “LGBTQIA+” and “cisgender.” A July Center for American Progress paper said schools and sports governing bodies, rather than politicians, should set transgender athletes’ eligibility rules and that restrictions may be appropriate in some circumstances; CAP opposed blanket bans. Advocates criticized the framework as potentially legitimizing exclusionary policies and letting a right-driven debate overshadow broader civil rights protections.
