Michigan Governor Rick Snyder asked legislators to update a civil rights law to prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
"I don't believe in discrimination," the Republican governor told reporters at the Mackinac Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual meeting for more than 1,500 business, political and civil leaders, the AP reported. "It's a healthy thing for the Legislature to look to take it up as an issue sometime this year."
It is illegal to discriminate based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status or marital status in employment, housing or public places under Michigan law, but now efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list have stalled because of Republicans' concerns about infringing on employers' religious freedom, according to the AP.
Twenty-one states have laws explicitly barring employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, the AP reported.
Brad Williams, vice president of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber, said it is time to address the law that people view as discriminatory, according to the AP.
"We know that the Legislature needs to hear from the business community to push this issue up to the top," Williams said, the AP reported. "We plan on spending the summer talking to them a lot on the issue, and we're hopeful that come fall we'll be able to take it up and get the issue off the table."
The gay rights group Equality Michigan is pushing to amend the discrimination law in 2014 as a precursor to a planned 2016 ballot drive to overturn Michigan's constitutional ban against same-sex marriage, according to the AP.
The comments from Snyder, who is seeking re-election later this year, were welcomed by the state's leading gay rights group and Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing, as well, the AP reported.