LANSING — Michigan prosecutors would have new tools to fight hate crimes against gay, transgender, senior and disabled residents under legislation approved Tuesday by the Democratic-led state House.
The bills, now heading to the Senate after 59-50 votes, would prohibit intimidation, harassment, threats or harm based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability or age — expanding an existing law banning "ethnic intimidation" based on race, religion, gender or national origin.
Sponsoring Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, called his proposal an overdue update to the 1988 ethnic intimidation law, predicting the proposed changes would take Michigan from a “laggard” to a national leader for hate crime prevention, intervention and response.
"As a proud Jew and a gay man, I will never sit idly by and watch as the communities I am part of face rising hate violence,” Arbit said in a floor speech prior to the vote on legislation he called a “central” part of his House campaign.
"Hate violence is different from other kinds of violence because it is terroristic in nature. There is never just one victim of a hate crime. An entire community is victimized too."
The votes came days after the FBI arrested a 19-year-old Michigan man on allegations of making of anti-Semitic threats and planning violence against a synagogue in East Lansing. Michigan police reported a total of 410 hate crime incidents in 2021, the most recent year data is available for, up from 377 in 2020.
