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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) this week signed landmark legislation to protect the states LGBTQ community.

In the process, she and her allies sent a message about the kind of state they want Michigan to be and how they hope to fend off the agenda of the far right, both within Michigans borders and beyond.

The new law amends the Elliott-Larsen Act , Michigans civil rights law, to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In practical terms, that means everything from ensuring landlords cant turn away LGBTQ renters to guaranteeing that employers cant fire workers in same-sex marriages.

Advocates have been trying to pass something like this for about 40 years. They have finally broken through because, in the 2022 election , voters returned Whitmer to office while giving complete control of the legislature to the Democrats. That hasnt happened since the Reagan era.

The new House and Senate majorities have been working at a breakneck pace. The initiatives they have enacted or are on their way to passing include a new tax credit for the working poor, repeal of anti-union legislation and several initiatives designed to curb gun violence something very much on the mind of Michiganders following Februarys mass shooting at Michigan State University.

Relative to those measures, the LGBTQ amendment will likely have a less conspicuous impact on everyday life because a version of the protections already exists. In a key case last year, the states Supreme Court ruled that sexual orientation and gender identity fell under the Elliott-Larsen legal umbrella even without new language.

But courts can and do reverse themselves, especially in Michigan, where voters elect justices on the seven-member Supreme Court. Moreover, putting a statute on the books, as Whitmer and the legislature just did, makes those protections much harder to dislodge in the future.