Michigan’s pro-equality progress hangs in the balance. Will voters preserve the wins or turn back the clock?

The Harris-Walz battle cry “We’re not going back” could have been borrowed from the Michigan Democratic Party playbook. In 2016, Democrats in this battleground state suffered a devastating defeat when Donald Trump eked out a statewide win by a mere 10,704 votes — or about two per precinct. 

In the election’s aftermath, the success of citizen initiatives in the 2018 election cycle created an independent redistricting commission and expanded access to voting, two wins of many that would set the state on a progressive path for the first time in decades. Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor that year; two years remain in her final term in office.

At present, Michigan has a Democratic majority in the state House and Senate, an all-Democratic executive branch, and a 4-3 Democratic majority on the Supreme Court. 

Michigan is one of six states identified by the Human Rights Campaign for a $15 million strategic investment to leverage the equality vote — 75 million registered LGBTQ+ and ally voters who prioritize inclusive policies at the ballot box. As election day nears, LGBTQ Nation takes a closer look at the down-ballot issues impacting queer lives in the country’s most contentious battleground states. 

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Michigan’s LGBTQ+ rights, decades in the making

Just last year, the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Michigan culminated in the passage of an amendment to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include LGBTQ+ residents. While that required more than 40 years of activism and advocacy by pro-equality legislators and the community, the fight accelerated around 2014. Before that, with the passage of Michigan’s so-called Marriage Amendment (an effort to ban same-sex marriage) in 2004, the queer community fought hard but made few gains.

State Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) first ran for the Michigan legislature ten years ago. He is now the senior member of the state’s LGBTQ legislative caucus, which more than doubled after the successes of 2022 and now comprises seven diverse lawmakers. Moss summarized the turnaround.

“Once we finally got this Democratic majority in place, the amendment to our civil rights law passed with bipartisan support,” Moss told LGBTQ Nation. “And, you know, back in 2014, this was the issue that Republicans used as a litmus test to their party. And now, ten years later, after we’ve gotten it done, we’ve been able to welcome Republicans into our pro-equality fold.” 

Currently, the Uncommitted Movement in Michigan continues to focus on the Israel-Hamas war, and some have already decided to vote third party or not vote top of the ticket. Add to the mix Robert Kennedy Jr.’s ongoing attempts to remove his name from the ballot in the state, another element that could affect the Michigan vote.

Beyond Detroit, the Great Lakes State’s biggest concerns

While Democrats currently enjoy a trifecta in state government, Michiganders remain a diverse group with a unique geography. 

Concerns for Michigan’s 10 million residents, who live in two peninsulas surrounded by five Great Lakes in rural, urban, and suburban communities, include the environment, climate change, clean water, well-paying jobs, and good quality of life, “all the way down to ensuring that our civil rights are protected and folks have the ability to live life as they choose and love who they want to love,” Denzel McCampbell, managing director of Progress Michigan, told LGBTQ Nation. “I really see Michigan as that type of place where all these issues come into play.”

Sometimes residents outside of Detroit, the state’s most populous city, dismiss a given issue as only affecting Detroit. “It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a Detroit problem,’” said McCampbell, who ran for Detroit city clerk in 2021.

“And the fact of the matter is that without Detroit, there’s no progress. So goes Detroit, so goes Michigan in that way. We’re the largest city in the state. We are the economic and cultural center of the state.” McCampbell also sees Detroit as a city whose issues are visible. He pointed to a recently established food co-op to address a lack of food access and efforts to create a more equitable public transit system as city priorities. 

The housing crisis, which disproportionately affects the queer community,  is also top of mind for LGBTQ+ Michiganders.

“There is a need to have more affordable housing, and that disproportionately impacts LGBTQ folks, especially queer people of color,” McCampbell said.”As we think about increasing public transit and increasing access to mental health services — those are things that impact everyone — but we really see a disproportionate impact on our community, and we need folks to be raising the alarm and also putting forth robust solutions to tackle those issues.”

McCampbell stressed that communities of color exist across the state, in places like Saginaw, Flint, Grand Rapids, “everywhere in between and outside of that.” Michigan also has significant Latinx, Asian American and Indigenous communities as well as a large Arab American community. Michigan’s LGBTQ+ population is estimated at six percent of adults.

While McCampbell does see certain voting blocs within the state, he believes Michiganders transformed the state because communities are now showing up for each other at the ballot box. 

While anticipating whether that will play out again this November, LGBTQ+ Michiganders are mobilizing and hoping to build on the recent wins. Following the ELCRA amendment of 2023, Michigan also banned the practice of conversion therapy on minors and banned the use of the gay/trans panic defense.

Related:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs bill banning “gay or trans panic” defense

The state becomes the 20th in the nation to ban the anti-LGBTQ+ criminal defense.

Michigan’s key downticket races

Queer Michiganders have reason to focus on electing pro-equality candidates at all levels, but Moss and McCampbell highlighted a few. For one, Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is polling well ahead of her challenger in the race to replace retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. 

Democrats have nominated Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas for the two available seats on the Michigan State Supreme Court. Last year, this court established a rule to ensure the use of preferred pronouns in courtrooms across the state. Not too long ago progress was hampered by a conservative, highly politicized court. 

“The Supreme Court of Michigan is a backstop to ensure that the policies that I talked about,” McCampbell said, “with the expansion of civil rights, ensuring that our LGBTQ Michiganders are treated fairly under the law, that we have the protections that we need. But also as we see various issues go through the courts, whether it’s workers’ rights, environmental aspects, down the line, it is crucial that we have advocates on that bench that will treat folks fairly under the law.”

Related:

The Supreme Court betrayed LGBTQ+ folks, but Michigan’s progressive victories reveal a path forward

Michiganders have moved to address rising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment by exercising their civic rights. And it’s working.

Across Michigan, volunteers and field workers for organizations like the Human Rights Campaign are getting out the vote. HRC Rising, the organization’s largest grassroots expansion in its history, re-established a presence in Michigan beginning with the 2018 election cycle. For the 2024 election, HRC has invested $15 million in battleground states including Michigan.

Equality Michigan reports that volunteers and paid workers knocked on 18,000 doors by mid-summer and connected with 5,000 voters as part of their pilot canvassing program. The organization is reaching voters not just in metro Detroit but in places like Grand Rapids in west Michigan and north in Traverse City, where Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten live with their two children. The nonprofit LGBT Michigan is organizing for the political interests of LGBTQ+ people and their allies as well via digital outreach.

“In Michigan, it really does feel like democracy is on the line.”

Progress Michigan managing director Denzel McCampbell

At present, some legislators and stakeholders are looking at ways to strengthen Michigan’s hate crimes statute and consider whether Michigan could be the next trans refuge state, among other initiatives.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” McCampbell said. “We are, in some places, going backward, especially when it comes to the attacks on the trans community.” He’d like to see a concerted effort for lawmakers at all levels to push back on a narrative that hurts the most marginalized. 

As extremists continue to fearmonger over drag queen story hour, censor library books, and ban Pride flags, Michigan residents are tiring of manufactured issues only meant to rile a conservative base. In another sign of hard-fought progress, gun safety advocates cheered when the state finally passed a gun safety package last year. And with the passage of a pro-choice ballot initiative in 2022 and a 1931 ban repealed in 2023, abortion is safe and legal once again.

“This is a state that’s gone through a lot of fights and trauma over the last several years,” Moss said. “In Michigan, it really does feel like democracy is on the line. So we are on guard every day to protect our progress.”

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