Michigan To Outlaw Misgendering in New Bill Passed By The House

The Michigan House of Representatives has passed a bill that will make intentionally misgendering a person a felony. If passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate and signed by Governor Whitmer House Bill 4474 will replace Michigan's existing Ethnic Intimidation Act, expanding the existing law to cover sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, and physical or mental disability.

According to News Week, religion, ethnicity and race were already included in the previous legislation and will still be covered under the new law. The bill would make it a hate crime to cause someone to "feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened" with words—including by deliberately misgendering them.

Republicans naturally oppose expanding the hate crime law. Republican State Rep. Steve Carra tells CBS News Detroit he's concerned the expansion goes too far. "Threats and violence and things of that nature and protecting against crime is certainly something that we absolutely should be doing in Michigan. But we shouldn't be building that around an individual's feelings of being frightened," Carra said.

Dallas Band The Vandoliers wear dresses to protest Tennessee Drag Ban

The Vandoliers, a punk rock country music band from Dallas Texas.

The Vandoliers, a punk rock country music band from Dallas Texas performed in dresses while on tour in Tennessee. They did this in protest of Tennesse's drag ban just a few hours after the state's top drag queen, now a republican shill, Gov. Bill Lee signed it into law.

The law prohibits adult cabaret performances from taking place on public property or in any place where minors might be present, and it threatens performers with misdemeanor charges for breaking the rules — or even felony charges for repeat offenses.

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Their propensity for social activism earned them a feature in the Rolling Stones posting on Instagram "Fuck a drag bill. 🖕🏽 Gonna auction off the dresses we wore on stage in Tennessee tonight and donate the money to a couple of LGBTQ charities in this state. Details soon. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️".

Vandoliers multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves said that it was originally his idea to wear a dress during the show as his own act of solidarity. But once the rest of the band caught wind of Graves' planned personal protest, they quickly decided to join in on the effort with him.

"Whenever I told our bass player, 'I'm gonna do this,' he was like, 'That's a good idea,'" Graves told WFAA. "And then I told our guitar player, and he was like, 'I'm doing it too.' And then our fiddle player's like, 'I'm doing it too!'"

It wasn't long before all six Vandoliers were on board.

The Vandoliers are currently on tour in Europe and the USA with appearances in Denton, and Fort Worth Texas. The very affordable tickets can be purchased thru their website.

This is the stuff legends are made of.