County workers in Oakland get LGBT protections with new bias ban from Democrats

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the non-discrimination policies in effect in Macomb County.

Oakland County’s recently empowered Democrats took another step away from the past this week by passing a ban against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The new policy was one that never would have passed under the previous administration of the late L. Brooks Patterson, the legendary Republican leader of county government for decades.

The new policy, passed on straight party lines with all Republicans who voted opposed, aims to end bias against LGBT persons in hiring for county jobs, in the county’s purchasing of goods and in providing county services to businesses and to local governments, said Oakland County Executive David Coulter, Michigan’s most prominent county leader who is openly gay.

“Oakland County is adopting policies that have already been considered best practices in corporate America,” Coulter said at a desk set up in Ferndale, where Coulter had been mayor before his appointment to the top county job. At the desk in the lobby of Affirmations, a gay community center, Coulter signed the resolution as top county Democrats applauded.

Not only was the new policy a good thing for LGBT job applicants and those working for county contractors but also “the right thing for the economy,” Coulter said, because “if we’re going to keep young people here, if we want the workforce of tomorrow, we need this.”

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After the measure passed last week by a vote of 11 Democrats and seven Republicans on the county Board of Commissioners — with three Republicans absent — Democratic leaders brought the resolution to Ferndale, historically a center of gay rights advocacy in Michigan.

Democrats at the event said an underlying goal of the move was to push state lawmakers to add similar protections to the existing Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which throughout Michigan prohibits discrimination on the basis of “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status" in employment, housing, education and access to public accommodations. 

Oakland County’s new policy adds the words “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression” to the state’s anti-discrimination act.

As Michigan law stands, it does nothing to protect LGBT Michiganders, said Affirmations Executive Director Dave Garcia. Before Coulter penned his signature, Garcia lashed out in a short speech against “conservative Republicans” in Lansing who have blocked a bill that would expand the Elliott-Larsen Act. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she would sign the bill if state lawmakers pass it, although there are no indications that it will even get a committee hearing in this session of the Michigan Legislature.

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The new policy is “the most comprehensive” protection for LGBT individuals of any Michigan county, said Oakland County board Chair Dave Woodward, D-Royal Oak, who sported a rainbow tie at Tuesday’s signing event.

Macomb County’s Human Resources Policy for county work sites, established by county Executive Mark Hackel’s administration in 2014 and updated in 2017, forbids “discriminatory work conditions” or “standards” on any basis listed in state law but, in addition, covers “sexual orientation or gender identity.”The policy also prohibits and defines “workplace bullying.”

Wayne County’s hiring and firing rules already ban “in practice” any bias against LGBT workers and job applicants, county spokesman Jim Martinez said. The Wayne County Commission is receptive to adding such protections in writing, board Chair Alisha Bell, D-Detroit, said Tuesday, after learning of Oakland County's new resolution.

If a policy isn't in writing, it's not enforceable, said Oakland County's Democratic leaders.

“If you’re gay, you can still be fired in Michigan — it’s outrageous,” Woodward told the crowd, adding in a slap at Patterson's conservative tradition: “This was only possible because we appointed a pro-equality executive.”

Oakland's Republicans opposed the resolution because "we preferred that state law was clarified" before local units of government weighed in, said Oakland County Commissioner Phil Weipert, R-South Lyon. Weipert also said he was skeptical that any worker in Michigan could be fired for revealing an LGBT orientation.

"I would think that would be crazy," he said.

The new policy was led by Oakland County Commissioner Penny Luebs, a Democrat and former mayor of Clawson.

She pushed for it because "it's the moral thing to do" but also important for attracting jobs and "the next generation of workers that we want to come here," Luebs told the crowd at Affirmations.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com