A prison sentence for “misgendering?” Michigan Republicans warned that the state’s new hate crime bill that woke Democrats are trying to sweep into law would result in people convicted for hurting another person’s feelings.
Republican state Rep. Brad Paquette slammed the measure as demonstrating the radical LGBT agenda currently held by the left. “The bill is founded in pure narcissism and victim mentality that’s built on gender theory.”
Paquette told the Washington Examiner that it attempted to force people to play along with “another’s delusion” whether they agree or not.
HB 4474 states that violators are “guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years, or a fine of not more than $10,000.
It further defines “gender identity or expression” as a person’s perception of themselves regardless of that individual’s biological gender.
The proposal would make it a felony hate crime to cause a person to “feel terrorized, frightened or threatened” with words such as deliberate “misgendering.”
It’ll soon become illegal to misgender a transgender person in Michigan. pic.twitter.com/I3xAoOXW2h
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 3, 2023
Two other GOP state Reps., Matt Maddock and Angela Rigas, blasted Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the state’s attempts at “controlling how we talk.” Rigas asserted that Americans resist efforts to “police our speech.”
It is apparently only necessary that the offended party perceive the speech as “threatening.” And it is well known that many transgender radicals claim to be deeply disturbed when those around them do not refer to them by their preferred pronouns.
Anyone with the slightest concern for First Amendment freedoms recognizes the danger inherent with this bill. There is no constitutional right not to be offended.
Maddock told the Examiner that leftists are quite skilled in wielding the law to bludgeon their political opponents. What the Biden administration has made into an art form is quickly being adopted by states such as Michigan.
He said, “their goal is to silence their opponents, criminalize our thoughts as thoughtcrimes and put every Christian in prison.” Maddock declared it is the duty of Americans to combat these bills that are blatantly anti-First Amendment.
The Michigan House, which is under the Democrats’ thumb, approved the proposal with a 59-50 vote. It is expected to clear the Senate as well before being signed by Whitmer into law.
