The Michigan legislature has changed course on an anti-bullying bill, removing language that would have created something of a religious purpose exemption from the law. Time's Amy Sullivan reports:
After hearing from outraged constituents who didn’t want their state sanctioning the bullying of gay students, from concerned leaders of Michigan’s large Muslim community–who worried that the bill would permit Christian students to target Muslim classmates–and religious leaders of all stripes who said, in effect, don’t do this on our account, the Michigan House of Representatives passed its own version of the anti-bullying bill without a religious exemption. The legislature will now set aside the Senate-passed bill and send the House version over to their Senate colleagues for approval.
[UPDATE – 11/30: The Michigan legislature has passed anti-bullying legislation without the controversial religious exemption. The measure now goes to the Governor for signature. See prior post regarding the exemption here.]
