LGBTQ history in Michigan
In 1846, a new code of laws adopted the penalty for sodomy was raised to a maximum of 15 years, and the provision for a fine was eliminated.
In 1897, Michigan enacted a unique ancillary law that prohibited the debauching of boys, which had two separate sections dealt with female and male violators.
In 1938, the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 5-3 vote, found in the case of People v. Frontczak, that the psychopathic offender law was unconstitutional.
In 1967, the Michigan Court of Appeals, deciding the case of People v. Askar, ruled that the sodomy law applied to heterosexuals.
The meeting attracted people from as far as Ann Arbor, and led to the foundation of the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement, of which then-organist of St. Joseph's Jim Toy was a founding member.
Toy also helped start an Ann Arbor chapter in March of that year, and came out as gay at an anti-Vietnam War rally in April.
Gayle Rubin, also a resident of Ann Arbor at the time, helped establish a group for lesbians in the local area.
In September 1971, Toy, a graduate of the University of Michigan, co-founded with Cynthia Gair the Human Sexuality Office (HSO) (later Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office (LGMPO) and currently the Spectrum Center) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which was one of the first LGBT student centers ever established in the United States.
The East Lansing chapter of the Gay Liberation Movement (now the Alliance of Queer and Ally Students) was formed on the campus of Michigan State University.
The first-ever "Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation" by any government body in the country was issued by the city council in June.
Notes: In 1983, House Bill 5000 was introduced, the first to seek adding "sexual orientation" to the state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, co-sponsored by Republican representative Jim Dressel, who later came out as gay.
In 1987, in People v. Kalchik, the Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the gross indecency law but still overturned the conviction.
In another case from 1989, People v. Lynch, another Court of Appeals panel decided to follow Howell that consenting adults could not be prosecuted under the gross indecency law but allowed the conviction to stand because it occurred in a public restroom.
In 2001, after the arrest of a Detroit state judge for exposing himself in a restroom, County Prosecutor Mike Duggan announced that "[w]e are not going to charge and prosecute consenting adults."
In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas invalidated all laws against consensual sodomy throughout the United States.
On September 15, 2011, the Michigan House of Representatives, in a 64-44 vote, approved of a bill that would banned most public employers, though not colleges and universities, from offering health benefits to the domestic partners of their employees.
[53] On March 14, 2013, the Michigan State Senate passed, by a 37-0 vote, an emergency harbor dredging funding bill that made private marinas ineligible for a new loan program if they discriminate based on sexual orientation.
On March 27, 2013, Governor Rick Snyder signed an emergency harbor dredging funding bill that made private marinas ineligible for a new loan program if they discriminate based on sexual orientation.
[58] In the interim, gay and lesbian couples began to apply for licenses and marry as early as the morning of Saturday, March 22, 2014, when the clerks' offices opened.
