Her mission is advocating for the state’s lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community, trying to popularize same-sex marriage and adoption, for starters — issues that wedge voters into corners.
Add that to her sleek, cartoon-red hairstyle and frankness about everything and you might not expect the doors of Republican legislators to swing open for Emily Dievendorf, the executive director of Equality Michigan.
....In the meantime, Dievendorf continues lobbying hard to encourage legislators to amend the state’s Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination on grounds of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, and marital status — virtually everything but sexual orientation.
Her goal is to see that prospective amendment introduced by a Republican lawmaker, although that hasn’t yet happened. “We’re having delays not because things aren’t moving but because we are having great conversations,” she says. “In the past, we’ve made too many assumptions about who is on board and who is not.”
...Despite political momentum, the Republican majority may block Dievendorf’s ambitious goals — but they won’t make her any less fun to watch.
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