Michigan Messenger

At a recent forum for the Republican candidates for Secretary of State, a defiant Rep. Paul Scott refused to back down from his unusual strategy of targeting transgendered people and refusing to allow them to change the gender designation on their driver’s licenses. As the Messenger previously reported, Rep. Scott entered the race for the Secretary of State job by declaring that he would “make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.” Asked what problem this was intended to solve, he told the ...

In a very interesting case that mirrors many aspects of similar situations around the country, the non-biological mother in a lesbian relationship that included children has filed for custody and visitation rights to the children delivered by her former partner. The Detroit Free Press reports: For 19 years, Renee Harmon says, she and Tammy Davis lived as if they were married. The two women had joint bank accounts, owned houses and decided to raise children together. Harmon said she even cut the umbilical cords when their daughter and twin boys were born, in 1999 and 2002, after Davis was ...

The Thomas More Law Center, founded by Tom Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza fame, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of several Michigan religious leaders against the federal government over the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was passed into law last year. The plaintiffs include Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association – Michigan; Levon Yuille, pastor of The Bible Church in Ypsilanti, Michigan; René B. Ouellette, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Bridgeport, Michigan; and James Combs, pastor of four different churches in the state. ...

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, has added his voice to a growing course of American leaders calling for the re-criminalization of homosexuality in the U.S. In an e-mail to Michigan Messenger, here’s how Glenn responded when asked if he supported the criminalization move proposed by the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg’s comments last week on Hardball: “The short answer to your question is yes, we believe that states should be free to regulate and prohibit behavior that’s a violation of community standards and a proven threat to public health ...

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Livonia) has signed a letter, along with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), demanding that President Barack Obama fire Harry Knox. The Congressmen along with leading Catholics sent the letter to Obama because Knox stood by a March 2009 comment by Knox in which he said the Pope was “hurting people in the name of Jesus.” That comment was made following Pope Benedict XVI March 2009 statement that condoms are part of the problem with HIV in Africa. During flight to Africa, the Pope told reporters: “I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome ...

Daniel Allen, the 44-year-old Clinton Township man charged with bio-terrorism stemming from an Oct. 18 fight with a neighbor, has asked the FBI to investigate the fight as a hate crime, says Allen’s attorney James Galen, Jr. “My client and I went to the Clinton Township FBI Field Office for two hours yesterday,” Galen said in an interview with Michigan Messenger. “They are now formally investigating potential criminal charges against the individuals who violated my client’s rights.” According to a police report from the Clinton Township Police Department, Winfred Fernandis, Jr. alleges ...

State Rep. Paul Scott, (R-Grand Blanc), announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for Secretary of State just five days ago, but he’s already caused a shock wave. Scott, who just completed the first year of his first two-year term in the state House, is rankling feathers with a promise he made in his Jan. 15 announcement letter, which listed four top policy priorities, including: · I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance In an interview with Michigan Messenger, Scott said the issue ...

Amanda Simpson Back in late-October, I interviewed Mara Kiesling, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based National Center for Transgender Equality, for a story on how gender identity had come to dominate Kalamazoo’s red-hot ballot battle over a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance later passed, of course, but in that story Kiesling explained why “trans” people (as she put it) remain an easy target for discrimination — because many people don’t know a transgendered man or woman. One specific factor she cited along those lines is that our government lacks high-level ...

1. Kalamazoo ordinance battle Kalamazoo’s pitched back-and-forth struggle over a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance dominated 2009’s gay rights debate in Michigan. The final result was a ringing victory for LGBT activists that reverberated nationally. The year began with opponents of the measure submitting enough petition signatures to call for a public vote. Prior to that, Kalamazoo’s city commission had voted unanimously to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But city commissioners repealed that ordinance and set in motion the campaign over the ...

Senate Democrats on Thursday approved the best health care reform bill they could manage: a sweeping $871 billion proposal designed to extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and slow the growth of runaway costs. It was at once a monumental achievement, which if signed into law would represent the most expansive overhaul of the nation’s dysfunctional health care system in generations, and a disappointment to many liberals who’d hoped the reforms would go further to rein in the same medical-services industries most responsible for the skyrocketing expenses. The tally was ...