Michigan Bill Could Put Pro-Life Conservatives in Prison for 5 Years for “Hate Speech”

The Democrat-controlled Michigan House of Representatives has passed an “anti-hate speech” bill that, if enacted, would make it illegal for a person to make any individual “feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.”

HB 4474, also known as the “Michigan Hate Crime Act,” would replace and expand upon the state’s current Ethnic Intimidation Law, which has been on the books since 1988.

As the Daily Wire reports:

Under the bill’s framework, “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” are included as classes protected against intimidation. If passed, the hate speech legislation would make violators guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

The sweeping legislation passed in the state House on June 20 by a near party-line vote of 59-50. All Democrats, joined by three Republicans (Graham Filler, Thomas Kuhn, and Mark Tisdel) voted in favor. One Republican was absent, and the remainder of the party’s caucus voted in opposition.

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The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Noah Arbit, D-MI, said in an April 26 press release, “No one in Michigan should ever be made to feel unsafe because of who they are, or what community they belong to.”

Rep. Angela Rigas, R-MI, said that Arbit and his co-sponsors’ decision to explicitly deem sexual orientation and “gender identity” as “protected classes” in the bill “specifically targets conservatives who speak out against radical gender ideology.”

Rigas told the Daily Wire that if the bill becomes law, it would allow “the gender delusion issue to be used as a ‘protected class.’” She said that “this opens up numerous issues when it comes to the courts and the continued weaponization of the system against conservatives.”

CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs, Tom McClusky, agreed with Rigas, saying that Michigan’s crackdown on “hate speech” is not “about actual crime but about policing thoughts, with the only evidence being if you hurt someone’s feelings.”

McClusky pointed out the real-life consequences of so-called “anti-hate speech” laws as they have played out for Canadians.

Similar laws in Canada have seen priests being charged for things they have said during a homily. This is clearly an effort to intimidate those who’d speak out for life and marriage.

HB 4474 is now under consideration by the Michigan state Senate, where Democrats hold a 20-18 majority. If passed, the bill will head to the desk of Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is expected to sign it.

Michigan Democrats have also proposed a bill with the stated intention to “address climate change,” which calls for a 100% “carbon-free energy portfolio” by the year 2035.

Both houses of the Michigan Legislature were controlled by Republicans prior to the 2022 midterm elections, when Whitmer’s re-election helped her party establish the state’s first Democratic trifecta since 1984.

LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared

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