Rep. Aiyash co-sponsors LGBTQ law

State Rep. Abraham Aiyash

By Charles Sercombe
State Rep. Abraham Aiyash continues to support state legislation protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Aiyash and over a dozen other Democratic legislators recently sponsored a proposed law that would expand hate crimes to include those committed against someone for their sexual orientation.
House bill 4474 penalizes any harmful act that is done “maliciously and intentionally based on actual or perceived characteristics of that individual, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factors.”
Those acts include:
• Using violence on another individual.
• Causing bodily injury.
• Intimidating another person.
• Damaging, defacing or destroying personal or online property of another person without their consent.
• Threatening to do any of those actions.

Violating the law would be a felony, and, for an individual found guilty, that person could face up to two years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. In some instances, those penalties could even be increased.
Contrary to some reports online, this law does not make calling someone by the wrong pronoun a violation.
The bill, along with a few other companion bills, has not been voted on yet in the Senate.
Democrats control both houses in the legislature, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is also a Democrat.
Aiyash is from Hamtramck, and is the first Arab-American to be appointed as majority floor leader. He is also the first Yemeni-American from Hamtramck to serve in the legislature.
The Review reached out to Aiyash for comment on this proposal law but he did not respond, and has not responded to earlier questions about LGBTQ issues.
Aiyash also previously co-sponsored a law that expands civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community.
He received pushback for that support from members of Hamtramck’s Muslim community.
Posted Dec. 8, 2023