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WHEREAS, I, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, called on the Legislature in my very first State of the State Address to pass legislation to expand the state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identification in employment, education, housing, and real estate as well as use of public accommodations and public service s and, WHEREAS, Michigan has been at the forefront of advancing civil rights for LGBTQ+ people beginning with the nation's first non-discrimination ordinance passed in 1972 in East Lansing and the nation's first Civil Rights Commission to independently recognize that discrimination "because of sex" includes sexual orientation and gender identity in 2018 and, WHEREAS, Michigan's LGBTQ+ residents contribute to the fabric of our society, hold positions in every sector of our economy, and live in every corner of our state and, WHEREAS, Michigan is home to an estimated 373,000 residents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) and,