In response to the bills, a number of Michigan advocacy groups have come together to launch the Don’t Change Yourself, Change The Law, campaign.

The campaign held a conference call on Tuesday to bring attention to the issue at hand.
In addition to fighting to protect Michigan residents from employment and housing discrimination, the group’s website offers tongue-in-cheek tips for LBGT workers to avoid being outed at work and potentially lose employment.

“It is ridiculous that a man can be fired for wearing a pink shirt or a woman for carrying a backpack,” said Denise Brogan-Kator, executive director of Equality Michigan. “If you’re good at your job, that’s the only thing that should matter.”

Grant Littke serves as the president of MSU’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Faculty, Staff and Graduate Student Association, or GLFSA.

He said many faculty members depend upon the benefits the university provides for same-sex couples.

“We have spent most of the last 10 years working to secure domestic partner benefits and thought we had finalized that whole process about a year ago,” he said.

“This bill would certainly undermine all of that … (and) a number of our members would be seriously impacted in their ability to obtain health coverage for their families.”

Deanna Hurlbert, interim director of the LBGT Resource Center, said the full impact of the bills won’t be known unless they’re passed but would be an embarrassment for the state of Michigan if they became law.

“I think the effect would be chilling,” Hurlbert said.

“It would be the Michigan legislature saying that, ‘You’re not welcome here; you’re not worthy of protection,’ and (it) communicates a hurtful message to LBGT people and the people that love them everywhere.”