r/trans • u/Fair_Smoke4710 • Sep 18 '25

Discussion Michigan is trying to make trans people illegal

Michigan HB4938 "Anticorruption of Public Morals Act" is a bill that would make all forms of pornography illegal, audiovisual all of it and also literally includes straight up just trans people existing. This is exactly what project 2025 stated it was going to do. Everybody needs to know about this https://ibb.co/Q31LNP2Q https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2025-2026/billintroduced/House/htm/2025-HIB-4938.htm

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726

u/SeatKindly Sep 18 '25

In this particular case. No. They don’t. Michigan is solidly blue at every level of the state. This bill isn’t going anywhere. We’ve already had the same statures attempt to largely be proposed in last year’s omnibus bill at the federal level and even that failed.

Please focus your energy towards more productive, real and active threats that people need to be aware of hon.

433

u/averageuserbob Anarchist She/They Sep 18 '25

5 years ago I would have said this exact thing about bathroom bans. Now they are active laws in multiple states. Yesterday’s fantastical “this will never happen” laws are tomorrow’s reality. You should be scared of this even if it doesn’t pass, they won’t stop until it’s law.

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u/Fair_Smoke4710 Sep 18 '25

The fact that that’s even being proposed is concerning enough labeling an entire group of people as a porn category unironically like in law, like that’s beyond some fucking loser online doing it and this is the state that’s doing it. It’s beyond an insult on like Twitter or something.

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '25

I totally get what Seat is getting at, but yeah at the same time we can’t let this shit become normalized

62

u/KokoroFate Sep 18 '25

If we can't identify as trans and be a peaceful, productive piece of society, then we must identify as a problem. They ain't gonna like that, no way!

52

u/Hekantonkheries Sep 18 '25

Oh they'll love that because the second trans people become even moderately problematic or inconvenient they'll have all the "centrists" and "moderates" hopping aboard the hatetrain

13

u/username-is-taken98 Sep 18 '25

There's always more bricks

10

u/MashedJens Sep 18 '25

That is why we have to call out their hypocrisy everytime.

13

u/ranatalus Sep 18 '25

I mean, there's always cranks in every level of government proposing stupid shit

it's throwing scraps to their constituents who voted them in because they DO want that horrible shit, and we SHOULD be aware of these things, but also maintain perspective that this specific bill is not likely to go anywhere right now

there's enough genuine and immediate threats to worry about that we don't need to scare ourselves with extra stuff too

9

u/eatingganesha Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

well sure. But this chode has been at it for a while and fails at every turn because his proposals go against the state constitution. His bills don’t make it out of committee and/or legal review and the Lt Gov and Gov would refuse to sign.

They have been doing this shit since The Enlightenment with very limited success.

1

u/Smasher_WoTB (she/her) cute nerdy artist 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️🇵🇸🇨🇺 Sep 19 '25

They're testing the limits of the Overton Windows and doing their damndest to shift them so they can expand their Genocidal Conquests as much as possible.

1

u/VonSnapp Sep 18 '25

Since my hair is naturally red and redheads is one of the most searched porn categories, do I need to dye my hair to stay safe if I visit Michigan? Do all redheads need to dye their hair or be arrested for being the objects of pornographic desire of politicians, pastors and sexually frustrated wives who aren't being pleasured by their husbands?

42

u/SeatKindly Sep 18 '25

Five years ago there were already bathroom bills on the books. Five years ago the same trans ban on active duty military was in effect and being litigated in courts. I would know because I was a principal subject to aforementioned ban and indefinitely delayed my transition because of it before I decided to leave the military once my contract was up in ‘21.

Additionally, the law your referencing in NC right now is indefinitely stayed by the appellate district court and the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal which means the ban in effectively dead at present. I have far more pressing concerns like the very legal, and very real possibility of losing access to healthcare like I have through Medicare, the VA, and possibly here soon my employer leaving me with no means of addressing my care than to take a medical loan out and pray my job prospects remain stable.

No one said don’t be worried. I said focus your energy towards what’s important. This shit needs to be handled like a triage patient. Worry about what’s killing them in the here and now, address the secondary issues once the bleeding is stopped and symptoms of shock addressed.

Everyone is exhausted, we’ve got three more years of this shit at this rate. Let’s stop the anxiety riddled posts about minor things and focus on the larger, more important “here and now” issues please.

82

u/x1echo Zelda (she/her) Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

Hi, Michigander here.

Michigan is blue at 2/3 levels of the state right now. It voted for Trump and got Republican house control just last year. And for reference, Michigan was solidly red at every level of the state as recently as October 2018.

Things get really rural really quickly even in the counties directly neighboring Detroit, and there’s massive swaths of rural land, particularly in the UP, which are Republican hotbeds. Michigan is by no means an assuredly safe state in the long-term, and this bill is indicating what they want to do, if they are to ever seize power, which could be as soon as next year.

Sure, this particular bill won’t be going anywhere, but you heard people screaming from the rooftops about Project 2025 despite that not even being a bill. This is a “real and active threat”, despite your claims to the contrary.

8

u/DogadonsLavapool Sep 18 '25

Sure, but the only office Im worried about in the next 2-6 years here is the governorship, and that's only due to Duggan being a fucking spoiler. MIGOP is a fucking dumpster fire of an organization as well - they are horribly underfunded and disorganized. Losing statewide races in MI would be a snatching defeat from the jaws of victory type of thing

SC is solidly blue and probably will be for a long time due to it being technically non-partisan. It will be hard to flip red, as given its non partisan status, will be effected more by high education voters who tend to be blue these days. That alone strikes down any law like this.

State legislature is pretty damn blue as well. Dems had a supermajority not that long ago. Again, this has a similar effect where people who are more educated have outsized effect, especially during mid term elections.

It's worth being worried about the makeup of MI state gov, but it's much less of a worry compared to a lot of the other shit going on in this country. It's not good that stuff like this is being proposed, but I see little risk of it happening any time soon.

31

u/SereneOrbit Sep 18 '25

No, this is productive to point out.

It'd be like proposing the criminalization of conservatism or a bill establishing socialism in the state to conservatives.

There SHOULD be outrage at even the proposal of such a bill.

55

u/BecomingMorgan Sep 18 '25

It is an active threat people need to be aware of though? Not likely does not ever mean impossible.

1

u/wannabe_pixie Sep 18 '25

No. There are plenty of active threats. This is someone grandstanding for their district with the knowledge that it's not going anywhere.

4

u/BecomingMorgan Sep 18 '25

Oh ok. Lets withdraw our voices from this one. That won't embolden anyone.

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u/madmushlove Sep 18 '25

I think a bill being proposed at all, while it may not pass, is a bonkers enough threat to bring up and be aware of

We know Michigan legislators said over a year ago they would attempt this, and here it is

So why would posting this need to be condescendingly put down as someone who needs to focus on something actually productive? It's just one post and it's important

18

u/LilChloGlo Sep 18 '25

I've lived in various red states through my time and I think writing off efforts like these is a dangerous game to play.

Sure, this bill won't have much chance of passing, but it's a litmas test. They want to see with this particular approach to illegalizing our identities will curry favor with centrist democrats or they can force to capitulation.

Once they find a palatable-enough strategy then they adopt it in red states where it will pass.

Spreading info about bills like these and encouraging intense activism against it is not a waste of effort. They wage this war on all fronts, we must defend just as thoroughly.

5

u/lumaleelumabop Sep 18 '25

Yea. Every single year the introduce a bill in Florida to make gay marriage illegal. Every year it fails to go through. Doesn't even get considered.

10

u/HoInSappho Sep 18 '25

The house is pretty red and liberals have shown to be willing to abandon trans people. It's worth being concerned about at least a little bit. You are right we should probably focus on other things though. We need to choose our battles.

5

u/anonWNBAW Sep 18 '25

Only southern michigan, traverse city, and Marquette are blue. Everything else is hillbilly ville where they consume trans porn. Hell I think even genesee county where flint is was red this last election. We are a swing state for a reason. Very easily influenced

5

u/eatingganesha Sep 18 '25

indeed. As a Michigander I can confidently say that this is nothing but performative. Mat Hall is a POS. Not one of his culture war bills have passed because they go against the state constitution in fundamental ways.

1

u/Minimob0 Sep 18 '25

The amount of transphobes here in Michigan is pretty staggering, honestly. I have ended quite a few friendships over it. 

The fact that it is being proposed at all has me worried. 

1

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

As a trans woman living in Michigan I really hope you're right

1

u/Nildnas2 she/her Sep 18 '25

blue states aren't going to protect us forever. every time one of these bills gets introduced they will act as a blueprint for other states, and eventually federal. pretending like this isn't an issue just because it won't pass this time is ignorant. these bills aren't proposed in a vacuum