Michigan's Hate Crime Legislation
Expanding Current Law to Include Gender Identity as a Protected Class
Michigan’s legislature has passed a bill amending the law on hate crimes to include Gender Identity as a protected class, along with Sexual Orientation. I am capitalizing them because they are important aspects to the law. The current law protects race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
According to “Click on Detroit,” there is too much hysteria over the bill, calm down, it probably will have nothing to do with misgendering or refusing to use preferred pronouns.
House Bill 4474 is among a package of bills that would expand Michigan’s current hate crime law to protect people based on their “sexual orientation,” “gender identity or expression,” “physical or mental disability,” and “age.”
A person would be guilty of a hate crime if they “maliciously and intentionally” do any of the following things “based on actual or perceived characteristics of that individual, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factors:”
Uses force of violence on another individual.
Causes bodily injury to another individual.
Intimidates another individual.
Damages, destroys or defaces any real, personal, digital, or online property of another individual without the consent of that individual.
Threatens, by word or act, to do any of those actions.
So, it sounds like the casual mistake of calling a man a man based on the fact that he looks like a man even if he believes or presents himself to be a woman, or a nonbinary, or a transmasc non-binary aromantic, will not be considered a felony unless it is a factor in committing a violent crime. The quoted experts in the article minimize the potential for authoritarian misuses of the law:
The word “pronoun” does not even appear in the bill, which was recently passed by the Michigan House. Critics claim that since House Bill 4474 lists “intimidation” under the list of prohibited acts, someone could potentially be charged with a felony for using the wrong gender pronouns. It is not likely at all, and not that cut and dry, experts say -- but, still, those claims have spread across the internet.
A preferred pronoun is how someone likes to be referred to when not using their exact name. Examples of pronouns include he/him/his, she/her/hers, and non-gendered or nonbinary pronouns that are not gender specific, like they/them
…
Nowhere in the bill does it explicitly criminalize the use of incorrect pronouns.
But what is one of the claims that transactivists make about the intentional misgendering of an individual? That it is “actual physical violence.”
Of course, some misgendering is actually purposeful violence. Cis people whose transphobia is remorseless are quite willing and able to wield pronouns as a potent weapon. But intent does not determine impact. Whether misgenderings are actively hostile or honest mistakes, these simple, seemingly innocuous acts are killing trans people. They are beating us down day by day as we try to live our truth. Cis people, you have so much less to lose in that interaction. You need to do the work, rather than expecting us to speak up and do it for you every time you screw up. Use the right pronouns. If you’re not sure, ask. All we’re asking for is a little piece of our autonomy back. I’m pretty sure you can spare that much.
The police could use this argument to arrest someone. A prosecutor could argue to a judge or jury that repeated, purposeful, intentional misgendering is a form of intimidation under the law. It’s not ridiculous. There are cases of this nature in England, and the US may be lagging a bit behind England on prosecuting for misgendering but that is likely because their have been no laws that make it possible.
If this gets through Michigan’s Senate, and is signed into law, there will be a way to prosecute someone who does not use preferred pronouns in social interactions. And while the law would be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, there would be too many people caught up in it for the meantime.
Here’s the potential punishment for such “violence:”
If found guilty, a hate crime is a felony punishable by not more than two years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
There are several factors that could raise the punishment to not more than five years in prison, and/or a fine of up to $10,000. Those factors include (as written by lawmakers):
The violation results in bodily injury.
The person has one or more prior convictions or violating this law.
A victim of the violation of subsection one is less than 18 years of age and the offender is at least 19 years of age.
The person commits the violation of subsection one in concert with one or more other individuals. (em)
The person is in possession of a firearm during the commission of the violation of subsection one.
The fourth bullet point? That can be used to intimidate other gender criticals from supporing a friend or social contact from backing up another person who is not using preferred pronouns to refer to an individual who is demanding to be perceived as someone they are not. If the trans identifier is a minor, it could be a felony. Repeat offender? Felony.
I do think that hate crime legislation in many situations is appropriate, especially as used to intimidate racial minorities and women with actual violence in order to scare them from exercising their civil rights.
This addition of “Gender Identity” is not a case for that. The status of the bill? The State Senate had the first reading under Senate Journal 60 on June 21, 2023 and passed into the Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety. For any Michiganders who know members of this committee and wish to comment, or contact them, here is a link to the House act as passed and here is a link to the Senate Journal where you can track the status of the bill in the upper house.