POLITICS
Michigan Advocates Eye LGBTQ Rights Referendum
Voter-driven effort would bypass key hurdle — the GOP-controlled State Senate
BY MATT TRACY
An LGBTQ rights coalition
in Michigan has
launched a statewide
campaign to enact comprehensive
nondiscrimination protections
for the queer community
— most likely through a voter referendum
in November. The effort is
aimed at adding sexual orientation
and gender identity as protected
classes under the state’s Elliott-
Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976.
Since 2018, the Michigan’s Civil
Rights Commission, interpreting
sexual orientation and gender
identity discrimination as forms
of prohibited sex discrimination,
has enforced LGBTQ nondiscrimination
protections. The last
year, when Democratic Governor
Gretchen Whitmer took office, she
signed an executive order banning
discrimination on the basis of sexual
Jim Fitterling, the out gay CEO of MIchigan-based Dow, is among the business leaders supporting the
drive to amend the state’s civil rights law to protect LGBTQ residents through a voter referendum.
orientation and gender identity
in government employment and by
contractors doing business with
the state of Michigan. The Fair and
Equal Campaign wants to codify
DAN DENARDO/ DOW
the Civil Rights Commission’s protections
explicitly in state law.
Josh Hovey, a spokesperson for
the Fair and Equal Campaign,
which is a coalition of LGBTQ
groups, business leaders, and others
Michiganders, said it would be
preferable to have the State Legislature
pass nondiscrimination
protections for LGBTQ people —
and he emphasized that advocates
would try mightily to convince lawmakers
to do so. But the campaign
anticipates roadblocks in the GOPcontrolled
State Senate and advocates
generally agree that it likely
will be easier to go directly to the
voters to win the nondiscrimination
protections.
“After waiting 37 years, this effort
gives the Legislature eight additional
months to pass these basic
human rights,” Trevor Thomas,
who serves as the co-chair and
president of Fair and Equal Michigan,
said in a written statement.
“If they can’t get the job done, our
Constitution affords Michiganders
➤ MICHIGAN, continued on p.19
HEALTH
Facebook Pulls At Least Some Bogus Anti-PrEP Ads
Social media platform faces lingering skepticism for failing to clearly bar misinformation
BY MATT TRACY
Weeks after LGBTQ
and HIV/ AIDS advocates
tore into
Facebook for running
advertisements they said promoted
misleading warnings about
HIV prevention medication, the social
media platform pulled some of
the ads in question — but not all
of them.
The controversy emerged when
attorneys started placing ads playing
up potential side effects of
PrEP, despite studies showing that
the medication is safe. The ads fueled
strong blowback from members
of Congress, LGBTQ advocacy
groups, and HIV/ AIDS activists
who wrote to Facebook expressing
worry that the messages could
thwart at-risk individuals from
beginning or continuing to use
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is under pressure to continue rooting out misleading HIV prevention
advertisements from his social media platform.
HIV prevention medication. Use of
PrEP, especially by men sexually
active with other men, is viewed as
critical to the drive to end AIDS as
an epidemic.
FACEBOOK/ MARK ZUCKERBERG
After first opting to keep the ads,
Facebook confirmed to Gay City
News that the company ultimately
decided to remove certain ads.
“After a review, our independent
fact checking partners have determined
some of the ads in question
mislead people about the effects of
Truvada,” a Facebook spokesperson
said. “As a result we have rejected
these ads and they can no
longer run on Facebook.”
But it is not clear which ads were
removed or which ones remain —
and it is also unclear which attorneys
were pushing the ads, leaving
major gaps in understanding how
the controversy was fueled in the
first place. Facebook did not immediately
respond to a follow-up
question asking for clarification on
which ads they referred to when
they said “some of the ads in question.”
Science Feedback, which is Facebook’s
independent fact-checking
agency, and the PrEP4All Collabo-
➤ FACEBOOK ANTI-PREP ADS, continued on p.19
January 16 - January 2 18 9, 2020 | GayCityNews.com
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