Michigan House makes using ‘wrong pronouns’ a felony

HB 4474 is designed to replace Michigan's Ethnic Intimidation Act and expand categories of protected classes to include "gender identity or expression" and "sexual orientation." The bill passed in the Democrat-controlled chamber 59-50.

The legislation also calls for someone to be found "guilty of a hate crime" if that person "intimidates" another individual defining the term as "a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened," but fails to define what constitutes "harassment."

The bill says "'Gender identity or expression' means having or being perceived as having a gender-related self-identity or expression whether or not associated with an individual's assigned sex at birth."

If passed, violators could be punished with up to five years in prison and $10,000 fine.

The bill now heads to the Michigan State Senate.