Michigan House passes bill that could make using wrong pronouns a felony, fineable up to $10,000
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A recently passed bill in Michigan could make it a felony to intimidate someone by intentionally using the wrong gender pronouns, according to some legal experts.
Michigan's state House of Representatives has passed bill HB 4474, a piece of legislation that criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words.
Under the new bill, offenders are "guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000."
Michigan's state House of Representatives has passed a bill that could make it a felony to use someone's preferred pronouns in a way that "intimidates" them.(Google Maps)
"'Intimidate' means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened," the bill reads.
The bill specifically addresses "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" as protected classes.
According to the bill, "'Gender identity or expression' means having or being perceived as having a gender-related self-identity or expression whether or not associated with an individual's assigned sex at birth."
Critics are accusing the bill of violating the First Amendment.
"Make no mistake about it. Those advocating for this legislation will wield these policies as a weapon capable of destroying conservative expression or viewpoints grounded in the sacred," Distinguished Professor Emeritus William Wagner told media outlet The Daily Wire.
"The state of Michigan is now explicitly allowing the gender delusion issue to be used as a 'protected class.' This opens up numerous issues when it comes to the courts and the continued weaponization of the system against conservatives," State Rep. Angela Rigas said of the bill.
She continued, "We saw similar concerns when they wanted to pass blocks on 'conversion' therapy. It seems Dems want to be in the business of telling people how to think."
The bill was passed by the Democrat-controlled state House in a 59-50 vote. It now moves to the Michigan State Senate for consideration.
If approved by the state senate, it will be sent for approval to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is expected to sign it.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers her State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate at the state Capitol in Lansing.(AP Photo/Al Goldis, file)
Michigan lawmakers gave final approval to legislation banning "conversion therapy" for minors as Democrats in the state continue to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power.
The legislation would prohibit mental health professionals from trying to convert youths who are LGBTQ+ to heterosexuality and traditional gender expectations.
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What madness we are living through!
[deleted]
Do you think Vic led the Michigan dumbasses to pass this bill?
I've seen dots a lot farther apart that trumpsters have convinced themselves they've connected.
$10K bounty on pro-choice participants, $10K bounty on homophobes. for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. basic physics works in culture wars too.
I'm sure that must mean something to someone somewhere.
Out of place here.
I have heard some real crackpot idiotic suggestions before.
This is just one more.
I'm sure you would be out there with your really big gun having a field day if you muster up the courage to shoot someone because they disagree with you!
Gee, I see there's no room for truth 'here'.
What truth?
Exactly!
It would be so much easier if we would all just were a badge with our pronouns of choice on it. Absent that, I ask people that I'm meeting what they prefer and then ask if i can take their picture so I don't forget.
most of us outgrow childhood fantasies and come to accept that we are males or females.
So, you want to be able to engage in” a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,"
That’s what you’re defending?
Is that what you see happening?
You really convinced yourself of that?
The only people who are threatened are those tagged by the hate-group known as "the Southern Poverty Law Center" as this or that.
You didn’t respond to anything I wrote, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Let me give you the benefit of the doubt. Who is the victim in this case?
You still haven’t responded to my comment. Additionally, your question makes no sense because there is no case.
Try - just try - to directly respond to what I asked.
When I was a kid, my parents taught me to say, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me" if someone called me a name.
It's sad that today's far-left, weak-kneed snowflakes have a mental breakdown when faced with words they don't like.
We let it all happen. If things work out just right, both Biden & Trump will be immersed in legal problems and maybe, just maybe, we'll get a President who will stop federal funding of left leaning universities.
I know. What the Hell is wrong with those people? Just another reason I am so glad I live in rural SE Arizona!
The closest I ever got was Gallup NM, but I do listen to the music of the man who romanticized the west!
That sometimes takes me there.
You mean Gene Autry or Roy Rogers?
Have to wonder how this will stack up in a law suit against the First Amendment.
onder how this will stack up in a law suit against the First Amendment.
If there's a judge in the country who thinks this is okay they should be impeached.
Yeah, throwing people in jail for using the wrong pronouns is bad, but is it putting books on the shelf in the library the publisher recommends level of bad? Given the amount of freaking out I've seen, the latter is obviously a much worse crime.
We should put everything that happened since 2020 in a time capsule
Including Angela Rigas ..
I don't understand your off-topic problem with her. Is it that:
Looks like the loons are in control in Michigan.
A crime to speak?
What a sad, sad day in America.
They learned it from reading 1984. It scared us, but was a road map for them.
No. And it would be hard to more egregiously misrepresent the legislation than characterizing it as simply making it a crime to speak. Incitement to riot could also be characterized as criminalizing speech, but there - as here - context matters.
I guess we could say laws against drag queen reading hour makes it a crime to read.
Obviously, it implicates the First Amendment, but harassment is already a crime. This legislation would seem to define another way that harassment could occur.
It does appear to be rather specific and defines behavior that happens repeatedly over an extended period of time, so it won’t involve the occasional accident or even a single instance of rude behavior.
Additionally, it has to cause a specific effect that must be proved both objectively and subjectively. I doubt we’d actually see it prosecuted a lot, but if it is, it would have to be some pretty outrageous behavior.
oh my gosh let's suspend reality for all and by golly if little Johnny decided he is a giraffe one day, we must validate him.
No. You don’t have to validate him. But you do have to refrain from giving him a hard time for it, repeatedly, over a period of time. Is that such a big ask?
I don't think it is healthy for a kid to identify as a giraffe all the time so I won't be validating him at all.
I will not be giving him a hard time either unless calling a boy a boy is now frowned upon.
Again! No one is asking you to validate anyone. Stop crying about something that isn’t happening. Nuance is a fuckin’ bitch, I guess.
[Deleted]
It obviously is to some people on the woke liberal left. All one has to do is read the news nowadays.
Not woke enough is not your issue. [Deleted] You keep whining about shit that isn’t happening, no matter how many times you’ve been told.
100% true!
I have no issues with not being woke enough.
"'Intimidate' means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened," the bill reads.
Based on the constant outrage it seems "reasonable individual" is in short supply. Maybe they should also change the definition of " terror, frightened or threatened " to "anyones whose feelings that are hurt". It seems the latest batch of snowflakes are afraid of everything.
Better not pass and be signed. Will backfire on its proponents if it goes too far. And my opinion of course, just kinda fuck off.
Stop expecting everyone else to change themselves and conform to you. If you wanna upend social norms then go for it, but don't expect everyone to just be okay with it.
A product of the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality and thinking that they have some right to go through life without ever being offended.
Cupcakes need to toughen up a little and realize the world doesn't revolve round them.
IMO the biggest problem society has is the idea that everyone is special or unique.
Very few of us are. VERY VERY few of us are Newtons, or Einsteins, or any of the hundreds of thousands of other who have expanded our understanding of the world. Very few are Michael Jordans, Larry Birds, Alex Morgans, or Simone Biles'.
Very few of us are so exceptional that the rest of us should consider changing social norms to accomodate them.
Governor Whitless and Michigan Democrats at it again.
With all of the problems Michigan has- they go out and create new ones.
No wonder people are fleeing this state.
In droves no less.
Hey, maybe they could use the fine money to fix the water system in Flint? They sure haven't done much else to fix that problem....
Why would they fix it?
They really don't give a shit about the people in Flint.
It was a great political tool to trash Snyder from having any chance at a political future. Now that it has been accomplished Flint is no longer politically relevant to Democrats. The people that live there will never vote for a Republican; and their slide into further leftist extremism has been rapid.
It is not like the Michigan media has been covering it. They won't say a bad word about Whitless. They are too busy fawning over her, praying that she will make Michigan famous by being the first female president.
Hopefully Republicans on the national level will attack her for her many gaffs while governor (Her causing two dams to burst; violating her own Covid restrictions multiple times; and her war on barbers and salons). The state Republicans barely said a word edgewise about her- even after suing her multiple times in the courts for abuse of power during Covid.