From 1660 to 1763, Michigan was part of the Royal Province ofNew France, which includedFrance's laws making sodomy acapital offense. In 1763, Michigan was transferred toGreat Britain'sIndian Reserve and adopted Britishbuggery statute that mandated a sentence of death for male-male buggery. TheQuebec Act of 1774 incorporated Michigan into theProvince of Quebec. When Quebec split into Lower and Upper Canada in 1791, Michigan was part ofKent County, Upper Canada. In 1796, under terms negotiated in the 1794Jay Treaty, Britain withdrew from Michigan and it was adopted into theNorthwest Territory. The Northwest Territory had adopted a statute in 1795 that received all of the common law of England as well as all English statutes adopted prior to the English settlement of North America in 1607. This included the English buggery statute that mandated a sentence of death for male-male buggery.
In 1800, Michigan became part of theIndiana Territory. None of the original laws of the Territory is known to exist today. In 1805, most of Michigan became aseparate territory and enacted its own criminal code. It made no reference to sodomy. In 1809, a part of Michigan became part of theIllinois Territory, which adopted a statute of all laws of the Indiana Territory. This included penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of $100–$500, and up to 500 lashes for sodomy. In 1810, the Michigan Territory decided to go its own way with law, enacting a statute that abrogated all laws of Great Britain, Canada, French, the Northwest Territory, the Indiana Territory, and all laws enacted by itself between specified dates in 1807 and 1810. It is unclear from the missing Code of 1800 if this law or a similar one had been in force in Michigan, but, if so, it was repealed as of this date.
The first official prohibition of sodomy occurred in 1816, when a new criminal code weighed sodomy as being of lesser heinous effect than murder, manslaughter, and treason and ahead of rape. The penalty was decreed as an unspecified fine and solitary imprisonment at hard labor for up to 21 years. In 1818, all of Michigan was incorporated into the Michigan Territory. In 1820, added a new code which specified the fine for sodomy at a maximum of $300 and reduced the maximum penalty to three years, still at solitary hard labor. 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. The legislature did not retain the language about the crime being complete upon penetration only.
In 1892, the first sodomy trial to go to theMichigan Supreme Court wasPeople v. Graney, which upheld a sodomy conviction on appeal. Later in 1892, the Michigan Supreme Court decidedPeople v. Hodgkin, where the court decided that the failure of the legislature to retain the language about penetration completing an act of sodomy in the 1846 code meant that proof of emission had to be established in order to convict. 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 1903, a "gross indecency" law was enacted by the Michigan Legislature, further criminalizing non-heterosexual activity. In 1922, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the gross indecency law in the case ofPeople v. Carey. In 1923, the sodomy law was amended to eliminate the need to prove emission of semen to prove the crime. In 1931, the crimes against nature sodomy law was amended to add that even the slightest penetration was sufficient to complete the crime. The gross indecency law was changed to lower the maximum fine from $5,000 to $2,500.
In 1935, Michigan became the first state in the nation to enact a "psychopathic offender" law. The law established a procedure to refer those convicted of "indecent crimes" to state hospitals if certain criteria were met. The indecent crimes included not only sodomy and gross indecency, but also "indecent language in the presence or hearing of any woman or child," "any disorderly conduct involving sex," or "any other crime or offense of like nature." In 1936, the Michigan Supreme Court, in the case ofPeople v. Schmitt, ruled that the term "crime against nature" did not embrace fellatio and that the latter crime could be prosecuted only under the "gross indecency" law, which provided a maximum penalty of five years in prison, versus the 15 years for the sodomy law.
In 1938, the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 5-3 vote, found in the case ofPeople v. Frontczak, that the psychopathic offender law was unconstitutional. In 1939, the "gross indecency" law was expanded to cover two females and a male and a female and the psychopathic offender law was rewritten to get around the objections of the court. The specific reference to sodomy and gross indecency and all references to sex degenerates and sex perverts disappeared from the law and were replaced by those "with criminal propensities to the commission of sex offenses." The 1960s saw a continuation of the firing and ostracism of homosexual residents in Michigan as an aftereffect ofMcCarthyism. In 1965, Michigan enacted a law permitting any person convicted of most crimes, including sodomy and gross indecency, prior to turning 21 years old to have judgement of conviction set aside if requested five years or more after conviction and if the person had been convicted on not more than one offense. A judge was permitted to enter such an order if "the circumstances and behavior of the applicant" warranted it. In 1967, theMichigan Court of Appeals, deciding the case ofPeople v. Askar, ruled that the sodomy law applied to heterosexuals. The constitutionality of the sodomy law was upheld by the Court of Appeals in 1968 inPeople v. Green. Also in 1968, the psychopathic offender law was repealing it outright.
January 15, 1970, is regarded as the beginning of organized LGBT rights activism in Michigan. Following theStonewall riots six months before, a "Gay Meeting" was advertised to be held at theSt. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Detroit, a church which was known to be sociopolitically liberal in its orientation. The meeting attracted people from as far asAnn Arbor, and led to the foundation of the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement, of which then-organist of St. Joseph'sJim 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.[1]
On March 17, 1970, the University of Michigan chapter of the Gay Liberation Front was established by Jim Toy. In September 1971, Toy, a graduate of the University of Michigan, co-founded withCynthia Gair the Human Sexuality Office (HSO) (later Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office (LGMPO) and currently theSpectrum Center) at theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which was one of the firstLGBT student centers ever established in the United States.[2] He was appointed to the Diocesan Commission on Homosexuality in 1971 by Bishop Richard Emrich of theEpiscopal Diocese of Michigan; the group published the Report & Recommendations of the Commission on Homosexuality (1973), one of the earliest church documents in this country to support the concerns of lesbian and gay people. The 1976 case ofPeople v. Howell left a legal puzzle. Two of the eight members of the Michigan Supreme Court did not sit. The remaining six split 3-3 on the question of the constitutionality of the gross indecency law as applied to private, consensual activity between males, although the opinion of the court reads as though the decision went in favor of the striking of the law.
The East Lansing chapter of the Gay Liberation Movement (now theAlliance of Queer and Ally Students) was formed on the campus ofMichigan State University. It protested continued firings of openly gay city workers and successfully pressured the East Lansing City Council to pass the first-ever anti-discrimination ordinance inclusive of sexual orientation in U.S. history on March 7, 1972.[3]
The April 1972 election ofJerry DeGrieck andNancy Wechsler to the Ann Arbor city council on theHuman Rights Party ticket would signal changes for LGBT rights in the state. The first-ever "Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation" by any government body in the country was issued by the city council in June. The groundbreaking Ann Arbor anti-discrimination ordinance passed by the council following the election was amended by December 1972 to include sexual orientation, making Ann Arbor the second city in the state to pass an LGBT-inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance. Both the proclamation and amendment were co-authored by Jim Toy.
Both Wechsler and DeGrieck came out as homosexual during their terms on city council, thus becoming the first openly homosexual public-office holders in the United States. When Wechsler declined to run for reelection in 1974, her seat was won by HRP candidate Kathy Kozachenko, who became the country's first openly gay or lesbian candidate to win public office.
Notes:
In 1983, House Bill 5000 was introduced, the first to seek adding "sexual orientation" to the state'sElliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, co-sponsored by Republican representativeJim Dressel, who later came out as gay. In 1987, inPeople 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.
Michigan's crime against nature and gross indecency laws was briefly overturned inWayne County byMichigan Organization for Human Rights v. Kelley when MOHR won the case in Michigan'sWayne County Circuit Court on July 9, 1990.[44] While the state did not appeal the ruling, the laws was upheld, in a 10-3 vote, by the Michigan Court of Appeals, inPeople v. Brashier on December 29, 1992, effectively reversingMOHR v. Kelly.[45][46] In 1991, theAnn Arbor City Council unanimously enacts the first domestic partnership ordinance in the state. In 1994, the Michigan Supreme Court, by a 5-3 vote, ruled that the Court of Appeals erred in Brashier in deciding that "gross indecency" could be decided by triers of fact under a "common sense of the community." In June 1996, theMichigan House of Representatives voted 88-14 to ban same-sex marriage in the state, while theMichigan State Senate voted 31-2 in favor of the ban. Also in June, the Michigan House also approved, in a 74-28 vote, a bill banning recognition of out of state-same-sex marriages. The Michigan Senate also approved of this bill.[47][48] Both bills where signed into law by GovernorJohn Engler.
In 2001, after the arrest of a Detroit state judge for exposing himself in a restroom, County ProsecutorMike Duggan announced that "[w]e are not going to charge and prosecute consenting adults." In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court decisionLawrence v. Texas invalidated all laws against consensual sodomy throughout the United States. However, the law has not been formally repealed by the Michigan Legislature as of present. On December 23, 2003, GovernorJennifer Granholm issues anexecutive order prohibited employment discrimination inpublic sector employment on the basis of sexual orientation.[49]
In 2004, voters approved a constitutional amendment,Michigan State Proposal – 04-2, that bannedsame-sex marriage andcivil unions in the state. It passed with 58.6% of the vote. TheMichigan Supreme Court later ruled that public employers inMichigan would not be legally allowed to grantdomestic partnership benefits based on the recently passed measure.[50] On November 22, 2007, Governor Jennifer Granholm extended her executive order to include gender identity.[51] This executive order would be extended under GovernorRick Snyder.
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. It did not extend to workers whose benefits are established by the Michigan Civil Service Commission. On December 7, 2011, the Michigan State Senate, in a 27-9 vote, approved of the bill. On December 22, 2011, GovernorRick Snyder signed the bill into effect.[52] On January 23, 2012, a lesbian couple filed a lawsuit known asDeBoer v. Snyder infederal district court, challenging the state's ban on adoption by same-sex couples so they can jointly adopt their children. In December 2012, theMichigan Court of Appeals ruled that the state's courts have jurisdiction to grant second parent adoptions by same-sex couples. The ruling stopped short of offering an interpretation of the code to allow for courts to grant such adoptions.[53]
On March 14, 2013, theMichigan 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 20, 2013, theMichigan House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 106-4. On March 27, 2013, GovernorRick 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.[54][55] On June 28, 2013, U.S. District JudgeDavid M. Lawson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing its law banning local governments and school districts from offering health benefits to their employees' domestic partners.[56][57]
The state of Michigan legalized same-sex marriage on March 21, 2014, when U.S. District JudgeBernard Friedman struck down the state's ban, finding it unconstitutional. Attorney GeneralBill Schuette filed for an emergency stay.[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.[59] That same day the appeals court imposed a stay in the case until March 26.[60] In March 2023, theGovernor of Michigan signed a bill into law that passed both houses of theMichigan Legislature in the same month - formally codifies both sexual orientation and gender identity into civil rights laws and preventing LGBT discrimination against individuals withinMichigan.[61]
The City intends that no individual be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of his or her civil rights or be discriminated against because of his or her [...] sexual orientation or gender identity.
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