He went on to help establish a Libertarian party in Kalamazoo County, and is active in pro-LGBTQ+ events and publicly advocates for churches to embrace the community. Wenke also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016 as a Libertarian. “I didn’t get very far,” Wenke said, “largely due to my pro-gay rights positions.” Wenke then unsuccessfully ran for state Senate twice - the second time as a Libertarian in 2014. He served two more terms in the Michigan House as a Republican. Wenke scraped by and won with about 80 more votes than Vander Roest, he said. Jerry Vander Roest, hadn’t been hurt by the disclosure of his Lansing arrest for soliciting an undercover police officer for prostitution. He said he “certainly” would have lost that 2004 primary for that reason if his opponent, former state Rep. “In a Republican primary, you don’t want to be a gay rights supporter in the Kalamazoo, Mich., area. Wenke also faced a tough GOP primary election over his views. That doesn’t make you friends in Lansing in your own party.” ‘The new world of politics’ “… It certainly kind of separated me from the Republican Party in the sense that I said they were putting discrimination in Michigan’s constitution and opposed it. “Certainly after that, I was not considered for speaker of the House,” Wenke said. His vote, and staunch commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community, forever altered the trajectory of his legislative career. That initiative initially succeeded, but was later overturned by the U.S. In 2004, Wenke was one of only two Michigan GOP lawmakers out of 63 to vote against an amendment to the Michigan Constitution that would have outlawed gay marriage. State Republican leadership has also repeatedly stifled bipartisan legislation that would make it illegal to fire or deny housing to someone based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Lana Theis (R-Brighton) seeks to prevent transgender athletes in schools from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Michigan’s top GOP figures have simultaneously peddled misinformation stigmatizing the LGBTQ+ community, like state GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock spreading anti-trans memes that falsely claim schools are offering litter boxes to kids who “identify as cats.”Īnti-trans bills have also popped up in at least 20 state legislatures, including Michigan, where a bill from Sen. In Michigan and beyond, Republican state lawmakers are embracing a pushback on gay and transgender rights not seen since the 1970s that centers on children, attempts to ban books that reference LGBTQ+ issues or race and block transgender athletes from sports. What Wenke saw in the GOP back then is making another national resurgence.
“ just developed a different attitude on it from the Republican Party,” Wenke said. “Through that whole process, I began to realize how LGBTQ people become who they are, and that they do not choose to be who they are. To Wenke, this “just didn’t make any sense.” He had sought to educate himself on LGBTQ+ issues after hearing that his best friend in grade school had married another man in Canada. But then I got to Lansing,” Wenke said.ĭuring his first term in the Michigan House in 2004, Republican then-President George Bush expressed his support for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. “Never even considered changing parties or thinking that the Republican Party wasn’t generally the answer to the world’s problems. Lorence Wenke of Kalamazoo had been a Republican his entire life.