Human Rights Campaign Michigan State Director Amritha Venkataraman released the following statement:

“Michigan is one of 29 states in the country that lack explicit state-level protections for all LGBTQ+ people. This means that LGBTQ+ Michiganders have different rights in every town, city or county throughout the state. No one's civil rights should depend on their zip code. We need to elect more leaders to the Michigan Legislature to join Governor Whitmer in advancing equality and protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Michiganders. The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse this slate of pro-equality champions in Michigan.”

Today’s endorsements include:

• Padma Kuppa for State Senate (SD-9)

• Jeremy Moss for State Senate (SD-7)

• Justin Mendoza for State House (HD-42)

• Ricardo White for State House (HD-11)

• Laurie Pohutsky for State House (HD-17)

HRC’s Commitment to Michigan

Equality Voters, including the nearly 1.2 million Equality Voters in Michigan are a voting bloc of demographically and geographically diverse Americans who are united by the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality. Equality Voters are younger, more racially diverse, and more female than the general electorate, they recognize and trust the HRC brand, and they are more likely to identify with issue-specific organizations than candidates or political parties.

HRC has had staff and resources on the ground in Michigan since 2017. Across the country, HRC PAC works every day to elect pro-equality leaders who support policies that will support the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people. During the 2020 election cycle, HRC staff on the ground recruited 5,800 individual volunteers nationwide who completed 28,500 hours of voter contact in more than 2,650 volunteer events. HRC engaged in robust digital and online GOTV efforts, including sending over 2.7 million person-to-person text messages, a massive increase from 2018 when approximately 500,000 texts were sent. HRC sent over 2.5 million mail pieces, had over 930,000 phone conversations with voters, and engaged more than 200,000 voters through HRC’s voter dashboard at hrc.org/vote.