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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Bathroom Discrimination Just the Tip of the Iceberg

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Wednesday, May 11, 2016   

LANSING, Mich. - While transgender "bathroom bills" make headlines, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Michiganders face discrimination in many other facets of their lives.

Ann Anglim of Fenton and her partner married in Canada, but their union was not legally recognized here until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality last year. She said it also was difficult to jointly adopt a child. While they made it through those challenges, she said that as LGBT individuals, they still can face discrimination in housing and employment.

"That still needs to change here," she said, "because we can get married one day and be showing our photographs to a coworker, and get fired the next day."

Attempts in the past decade to update the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in Michigan to add sexual orientation to the list of protections have failed to gain traction. Some proposals didn't receive support from the LGBT community because they didn't also specify protections for those who are transgender. Without fairness under the law, said Heather Simpson, who advocates for Michigan's transgender community, some LGBT residents of the state struggle to lead the lives they want.

"When it comes to how LGBTQ people make their money and basically contribute to society," she said, "there are serious barriers that prevent people from being able to move forward. You're basically at the mercy of another person."

Simpson, who chairs Women in Learning and Leadership at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said she believes no person should ever be made to feel guilty or ashamed of who they are. She's calling for greater understanding and compassion, particularly in light of an epidemic of transgender people being killed or taking their own lives.

"People need to start being more caring, because people are dying," she said. "If you're not being murdered, you're murdering yourself - and that's a very sad, sad way of life for trans people. It's very hard to keep your head held high."

While acceptance has grown for the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities, Simpson said misconceptions and prejudice persist about gender identity. Transgender individuals' gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth; people who identify as "gender non-conforming" don't follow traditional ideas about how they should present themselves based on their birth gender.


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