DETROIT— Equality Michigan, the state’s LGBTQ rights organization, has condemned the appointment of an anti-LGBTQ activist to the state’s Civil Rights Commission.
Equality Michigan made the announcement on their Facebook page. The group’s executive director, Stephanie White, made this statement:
“Equality Michigan condemns the appointment of Ira Combs to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in the strongest possible terms. His twenty-year track record of demonizing and vilifying LGBT Michiganders is embarrassing. It should go without saying that someone so committed to depriving a group of Michiganders of their basic civil rights has no business on the Civil Rights Commission. Moreover, Governor Snyder’s appointment comes at a time when LGBT rights are at the forefront of the Commission’s agenda as they continue to consider the question of whether the Elliott-Larsen Civil Right Acts’ prohibition on sex discrimination extends to LGBT Michiganders. Equality Michigan calls on the Michigan Senate to exercise its constitutional advice and consent powers to disapprove this dangerous appointee.
In his work to undermine and attack the basic civil rights of LGBT people, Mr. Combs frequently relies upon discredited pseudoscience and blatant misrepresentations about LGBT people, their families, and their lives. As recently as 2017, Mr. Combs was one of the leading opponents of the City of Jackson’s LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance. He has been amicus curiae in anti-LGBT lawsuits, including defending marriage discrimination targeting same-sex couples. He fought the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance at Jackson High School, despite the fact that the federal Equal Access Act protects such student organizing. The list goes on and on and on. If Governor Snyder was looking for a person more hostile towards LGBT Michiganders, he would be hard pressed to find anyone who exceeds Mr. Combs record.”
