By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-869176.mp3
LANSING, MI – A state House committee voted Wednesday to include gay, lesbian and transgendered people in the state's civil rights law.
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The decision comes on the heels of a Kalamazoo election that upheld a civil rights ordinance protecting gay, lesbian, and transgendered people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
Democratic state Representative Rebekah Warren.
"We really want to enact in state law the same kind of protections that they were able to pass in Kalamazoo," she says.
Warren says overwhelming support in Kalamazoo shows the entire state may be ready to support similar protections. She says it's a good sign that a majority of the House Judiciary Committee supported the bill.
But her bill is expected to be a tough sell in the Democrat-controlled state House and the Republican-controlled state Senate.