Members of Lansing, Michigan's city council are talking with religious leaders as they attempt to draft a broad human rights ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment, public facilities and public accommodations. Lansing's City Pulse reports that while religious leaders agree that the ordinance is needed, leaders of local Roman Catholic churches and a number of African-American clergy have concerns over the scope of exemptions for religious institutions from provisions prohibiting employment discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons. Bishop David Maxwell, vice president of the Clergy Forum of Greater Lansing and director of the Mayor's Office of Faith Based Initiatives says that the original draft of the law exempted religious organizations' hiring of officers, religious instructors and clergy from the law. However, Black pastors also want an exemption for hiring of staff or others that act contrary to a church's moral belief. Council's General Services Committee is now proposing an amendment that would provide: "It is permissible for a religious organization or institution to restrict employment opportunities, housing facilities or public accommodations that are operated as a direct part of religious activities to persons who conform with the moral tenets of that religious institution or organization"
Last week, representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Lansing asked for even broader exemptive language in the ordinance. They proposed a provision that would read: "This ordinance does not limit the right of an individual or an organization of any kind to speak, write, assemble, act or refrain from acting in accordance with religious belief." Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar, who introduced the ordinance, rejected this proposal as discriminatory.
