HOUGHTON, MI— Residents wanting to comment on a Houghton County Board resolution declaring there are only two sexes—male and female—packed the County Courtroom and filled the halls Tuesday night.
Introduced by Commissioner Joel Keranen, the document urged the rest of the state to adopt that view.
Dr. Shelby Owens of Lake Linden said the claim that there are only two sexes is false and the resolution was meant to create division.
“This resolution is a thinly veiled attempt to sow hate and provoke discrimination against transgender and gender diverse people with what I suspect is deliberate misinformation to create a divisive political theater.”
Others at the meeting said the resolution threatened the mental health of those who don’t fit a binary model, could stop people from coming to the area, and wasn’t an important public issue.
Keranen said birth, marriage, and death certificates shouldn’t contain options like “other” when it comes to a person’s sex.
“This resolution doesn’t take rights away from anyone, nor is that the purpose. The purpose is to counter a culture that seeks to undermine the definition of gender and destroy the notion that we are created male and female.”
About 87 percent of the nearly 120 people who commented on the resolution denounced it. Public input lasted nearly five hours and hundreds more people watched the meeting online.
The resolution ultimately failed on a 4-1 vote.
