Kalamazoo Equal Rights Ordinance Information

The Kalamazoo Alliance for Equality (KAFE) needs your help! We ask that you write a letter to the City Commission supporting the passage of a comprehensive equal rights ordinance that seeks to insure equality for all people in Kalamazoo. Currently, the Kalamazoo City ordinances do not provide protection for its residents or visitors to Kalamazoo against discrimination in employment or public accommodations, and only on a limited basis in housing. Kalamazoo’s future depends on hopes to become a place people want to stay and enjoy and not get away from. Kalamazoo’s strengths are the results of its broad human diversity and the recognition and celebration of all community members whether they are young, old, black, Hispanic, LGBT or disabled. By enacting a comprehensive equal rights ordinance, Kalamazoo joins other cities that have made the declaration that they will protect the rights of all of its people from wrongful discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation.

Click on the link below to view the proposed new Equal Rights Ordinance for the City of Kalamazoo.

Equal Rights Ordinance

Send a message to the Kalamazoo City Commissioners in favor of the ordinance by clicking here.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Kalamazoo Equal Rights Ordinance

1.) Why does Kalamazoo need an equal rights ordinance?

Currently, the Kalamazoo City ordinances do not provide protection for its residents or visitors to Kalamazoo against discrimination in employment or public accommodations, and only on a limited basis in housing. Kalamazoo’s future depends on hopes to become a place people want to stay and enjoy and not get away from. Kalamazoo’s strengths are the results of its broad human diversity and the recognition and celebration of all community members whether they are young, old, black, Hispanic, LGBT or disabled. By enacting a comprehensive equal rights ordinance, Kalamazoo joins other cities that have made the declaration that they will protect the rights of all of its people from wrongful discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation.

2.) Who is protected by the equal rights ordinance?

The ordinance is created to protect the rights of any person in housing, employment and public accommodation regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, height, weight, condition of pregnancy, marital status, physical or mental limitation, source of income, family responsibilities or status, educational association, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV status. The ordinance is intended to be comprehensive and is a statement of protection for not only those individuals protected by federal and state civil rights laws, but also classifications of individuals in the community who are victims of wrongful discrimination not otherwise protected. This includes victims of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) status.

3.) How will the ordinance be enforced?

The ordinance provides that a victim of discrimination may file a complaint with the city or file a claim directly against the wrongdoer for damages. Violation of the ordinance can result in being charged with a civil infraction punishable by a fine of up to $500.00 per violation. The ordinance will also provide for a mediation procedure with the hope that discrimination in Kalamazoo can be eliminated as a result of cooperation and conciliation, in addition to the other available remedies.

4.) How will this ordinance affect my right to worship or live where I wish?

The equal rights ordinance provides a broad range of exceptions to its coverage which recognize and respect the free exercise of religion for all members of the Kalamazoo community by protecting the faith community’s right to hire, house or accommodate their worshipers in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs. It recognizes the right of the owner of a one or two family dwelling, or a tenant in an apartment, to live as they choose to live and with whom they chose live. The ordinance contains 13 additional exceptions to coverage in an effort to make a comprehensive policy flexible enough to respect our differences and other requirements of the law. We encourage you to review the ordinance, including these exceptions, at our website at www.kalamazooalliance.net/hrordinance. The password is ordinance.

5.) What other cities have enacted a comprehensive equal rights ordinance?

Equal rights ordinances recognizing the full array of civil and human rights, including the rights of the LGBT and HIV community to be free from discrimination are those enacted by the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Ferndale, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, and others totaling nearly twenty in number and spanning Michigan. These communities have successfully made their equal rights ordinances statements of support for all members of their communities, and have in turn obtained the wide ranging support of the members of their communities.

6.) What can you do to help this effort?

KAFE asks that you to tell the Kalamazoo City Commission and city government that Kalamazoo needs a comprehensive equal rights ordinance to provide protections for all of its diverse community members if we are to be the creative successful community to which people want to come to live, visit and work, and in which business wants to invest. Go to www.kalamazooalliance.net/hrordinance (password-ordinance) today for further information on how you can prepare a letter and show you support for the Kalamazoo Equal Rights Ordinance.