It had just started drizzling Wednesday when Michigan House Democrats read their Pride month resolution on the steps of the Michigan state capitol.
The symbolic measure would declare June as LGBTQ Pride Month in Michigan. Democrats read their resolution outside because Republican House leadership is blocking it from moving forward on the House floor.
Michigan Democrats have introduced a Pride resolution annually, in both the House of Representatives and Senate, in recent years. The measure often fails to pass when Republicans are in charge.
Though, in 2021, Republican majorities did pass Pride month resolutions in the House and Senate. Three Senate Republicans co-sponsored the resolution again in 2022, though it didn’t pass. The House took up a “Pride week” resolution instead of a Pride month in 2022.
“It’s not necessarily a partisan issue and it doesn’t always need to be. Everyone is welcome to support the LGBTQ community here in Michigan, and I encourage [Republicans] all to join us in doing so,” state Rep. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) told reporters Wednesday.
Morgan is the lead sponsor of this year’s House Pride month resolution. He hopes Republican House leadership has a change of heart and takes up the measure before the end of June. He argues there’s enough support from the other side of the aisle to get it done.
Typically, resolutions are passed as voice votes rather than record role call counts.
House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp), however, said he believes Pride month is too divisive to come up this year.
“I’m just trying to keep the Michigan House out of these discussions and keep them focused on healthcare affordability, property tax cuts, and the budget,” Hall told reporters when asked Wednesday.
The House has adopted over 250 resolutions this year, including controversial ones involving the Southern Poverty Law Center, transgender student athletes, and to hold Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in civil contempt of the Michigan House.
Hall, however, said he’d block “divisive” resolutions from both Republicans and Democrats from moving forward. That includes a resolution to create a “Nuclear Family Month.”
In the Michigan Senate, an LGBTQ Pride month resolution passed this year for the fifth time since Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) helped start the tradition in 2020.
“While it might just be a symbolic resolution on a piece of paper, that’s exactly what it is. A symbol of struggle. A symbol of activism. A symbol of progress,” Moss said on the Senate floor, earlier this month.
