Sleight of Hand: Michigan’s Anti-Bullying Law, (Un)acceptable Exceptions, and the Reversal of Policy Making Rhetoric

This article analyzes the rhetoric of the policy-making discourse surrounding Matt’s Safe School Law, a Michigan anti-bullying law made famous by a Republican amendment exempting expressions of religious/moral belief from legal censure. I argue against the popular narrative that the exemption’s ultimate removal represented a progressive/LGBTQ victory. The religious/morality exemption constituted a conservative appropriation of an otherwise progressive policy commitment: the enumeration of protected classes of students. This appropriation invited progressives to deploy otherwise conservative anti-enumeration arguments, baiting them into embracing an unenumerated version of Matt’s Law that they previously deemed unacceptable. I close by contemplating what this rhetorical sleight of hand means for queer critiques of LGBTQ-oriented policy, highlighting the violence of policy making that targets LGBTQ people without explicitly naming them.