Michigan Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield) speaks in support of his hate crime legislation in Lansing, Michigan on Nov. 13, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
With the lame duck session underway in the Michigan Legislature, the Democratic-led House moved forward legislation on Wednesday to enact tougher hate crime prohibitions.
House Bills 5400 and 5401 would update Michigan’s 1988 “ethnic intimidation” statute to add sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability or age as characteristics that would be considered a hate crime if they were the basis of violent or threatening behavior.
The bills passed 57-52, with one Republican, state Rep. Tom Kuhn (R-Troy), joining all Democrats in approving the legislation. The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield), gave an impassioned speech, rebutting remarks that argued the bills could infringe free speech interpreting non-threatening behavior as a hate crime.
Those remarks were made by Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford), who was stripped of his office staff, funds and committee assignment earlier this year by House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) after Schriver posted to social media what was termed a “sustained campaign of racist rhetoric and hate speech.”