From AmericaBlog comes news of two toxic pieces of legislation pending in Michigan.
House Bill No. 5040, (introduced by Reps. Haveman, Rogers, Kowall, Daley, Pscholka, Heise,Shirkey, Hooker, Kurtz, Bumstead, Jenkins, Shaughnessy, Poleski, O'Brien, Knollenberg, MacMaster, Gilbert, Genetski, Franz, McMillin, Walsh, MacGregor, Huuki, Rendon, Lyons, Price, Johnson, Damrow, Foster, Olumba, Roy Schmidt, Yonker, Opsommer and Olson) would prohibit public and private colleges from disciplining “a student in a counseling, social work, or psychology program because the student refuses to counsel or serve a client as to goals that conflict with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of the student.”
(Here in Nebraska, social workers are fighting to insist that the Department of Health and Human Services require counselors who refuse to help gay clients at least refer them to professionals who will. The Nebraska Catholic Conference is resisting.)
House Bill No. 5039, introduced by homophobe extraordinaire Rep. Thomas McMillin (R-Rochester), would prohibit state agencies and units of local government – such as cities, townships, counties, school districts, and public and community colleges – from adopting any ordinance or policy that protects gay citizens, as they aren't included in Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976.
"Is this like McCarthyism?" AKSARBENT found this video showing McMillin repeatedly refusing to tell constituents whether he belongs to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate lobbying effort to craft "model" legislation to be enacted on the state and federal level. ALEC gets money from the Koch Brothers, of course.
Knollenberg is my state rep. I can just see him supporting this. What a flaming jerk!
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