Michigan is taking proper pronoun use seriously by passing a law that could potentially jail those violating it. Why Lansing wasted time on the trivial matters of the ‘woke’ Left isn’t a mystery; the governor is Gretchen Whitmer. And the bill’s text is wholly subjective, inviting any overzealous prosecutor to take this law for a spin in unconstitutional territory. The penalties are stiff: up to five years in jail or a $10,000 fine for someone exercising their right to free speech (via Fox News):
A recently passed bill in Michigan could make it a felony to intimidate someone by intentionally using the wrong gender pronouns, according to some legal experts.
Michigan's state House of Representatives has passed bill HB 4474, a piece of legislation that criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words.
Under the new bill, offenders are "guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000."
"'Intimidate' means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened," the bill reads.
The bill specifically addresses "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" as protected classes.
According to the bill, "'Gender identity or expression' means having or being perceived as having a gender-related self-identity or expression whether or not associated with an individual's assigned sex at birth."
Critics are accusing the bill of violating the First Amendment.
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Of course, this is a violation of First Amendment rights. And you cannot trust the snowflake brigade to define what “intimidate” means. This crowd thinks those who hold different political views are intimidating and violent. I hope free speech groups are preparing their legal filings because this law is insane. Are we importing Canadian ideas on freedom of speech now? Hard pass.
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