Getting Along: Fostering Tolerance with the Human Rights Commission

May 8, 2002

When Blake Ringsmuth moved back to Traverse City in 1995, he never dreamed the sleepy
town where he‘d grown up would be such a fire-pit of controversy. The same day he came back,
someone burned a cross in a yard in Interlochen.
“I just thought, ‘Oh my God, why did I move back here if this is what‘s going on?‘“ he
recalls. “I literally laid awake most of the night tossing and turning, trying to figure out what I could do. So I finally got up and wrote a letter to the editor condemning the act and asking everyone to step up and speak their mind, because silence allows this kind of activity to breed.“
Ringsmuth, who studied law at the University of Michigan and is now a local attorney,
thought he‘d be the only one to take a stance. But the next day, the issue was splashed across the front page of the paper and a storm of other letters followed.
“It was treated like the abhorrent, horrible thing it was,“ he says. “People were coming out of the woodwork to condemn it, and I thought, thank God.“
Ringsmuth decided to take a more proactive stance and joined the Human Rights
Commission in Traverse City, where he now serves as chairman.
“While I thought this was a pleasant enough place to live, it‘s fairly white bread,“ he notes.
“There are some segments of our community that need the benefit of a human rights commission.“

What They Do
Most of us have probably heard of the Human Rights Commission, but just exactly what they do might be a mystery. Made up of nine community members, their primary charge is to foster tolerance between all segments of the community.
They sponsor the Martin Luther King Day, hold public forums and educational programs in
the schools and community, hear complaints from community members, and issue statements on hot issues.
They also award the annual Sara Hardy Humanitarian Award, which this year went to Paul
Heaton for his work fighting Proposal One, a petition that would have prohibited the city from taking action to protect homosexuals against discrimination.
“What that meant was that if a Traverse City business posted a large sign in the window that said, ‘Homosexuals Not Welcome,‘ the city couldn‘t do anything about it,“ explains Ringsmuth. “They couldn‘t pass a resolution, pass an ordinance, or even speak out against it.“
But the petition was defeated by Traverse City voters, an action Ringsmuth couldn‘t be
happier about. “I‘ve participated in sports all my life and have had some great victories, but when Proposal One was defeated by our community, I was so proud to have grown up here,“ he says. “I knew in my heart that if our community was made aware of what this proposal was all about, they would defeat it. And when that happened, it was just a powerful victory for human rights in our community.“

The Price of Standing Up
It was also the first time Ringsmuth had ever seen his name mentioned directly in letters to the editor. “It was an odd feeling,“ he recalls. “But that‘s the choice I made. I still drive around with a rainbow sticker on my car, and the thought‘s crossed my mind that I may come out one day and find my car vandalized because of that. But I think that‘s the price of doing business. Sometimes, when you believe in something strongly enough, you just do it. The Human Rights Commission has done that, and we‘ve been criticized for it.“
Like being called the “Homosexual Rights Commission“ at times. But that‘s all part of the
First Amendment process, he says. “It‘s part of what makes this a great society...that we can have that debate. They get their idea out there, we get our idea out there, and the best one wins.“
According to Ringsmuth, the rainbow bumper sticker was a result of several hate-crime-ish incidents in the area, like the cross-burning and an assault incident at Side Traxx, a local gay bar.
“The point was, let‘s have a bumper sticker that states affirmatively that‘s not what we‘re
about,“ he explains. “We‘re about a blended community where everyone‘s welcome regardless of who they are. So people put their heads together and came up with some designs to promote diversity and acceptance, and that was the design that was selected and approved by the city.“
But it also resembled the rainbow symbol previously adopted by the gay community, which
set off a storm of controversy that lasted for months. “People just went berserk,“ he says. “It got completely out of control, but in way, I think a good thing came of it, because it raised consciousness and people started talking about it.“
The Human Rights Commission also deals with issues surrounding Native Americans, police, race, religion, familial status, mental illness, and sexual harassment, to name a few.
“I‘d really like people to know that we‘re here,“ says Ringsmuth. “We may not be the end
all to their issue, but we can help. We can begin a dialogue, help mediate things, and put people in touch with other resources that are helpful to their particular instance.“

Not Just White Anglo-Saxons
The commission works closely with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, a state agency based in Lansing and Detroit with regional offices throughout Michigan. Tom Appel heads up the Traverse City office, which covers an area west of I-75 from Cadillac to Mackinac City. Unlike the local Human Rights Commission, however, this group has legal authority through the Elliott-Larson Civil Rights Act and the Michigan Persons With Disabilities Act.
“We can order the production of documents, and we ultimately have access to the attorney
general‘s office, so we have the force of law behind us,“ notes Appel.
He investigates discrimination complaints based on race, religion, color, age, sex, national
origin, height, weight, marital status, and to some degree, arrest record. He also does speaking and training events.
Last year, 347 people contacted Appel, and he‘s currently investigating 25 formal complaints. Most local issues concern gender (pregnancy, sexual harassment, and failure to hire or promote), disability (workplace injuries), and age discrimination.
He notes that while many smaller companies don‘t have full-time human rights departments, most of the larger employers in this area are well-equipped to deal with it.
“Larger employers up here are pretty savvy about that stuff, and generally have well-
developed policies and grievance procedures,“ he says. “That‘s a function of places like Michigan Works that bring employers together to talk about those issues.“
But human rights complaints, in general, seem to go with the times, he notes. “When the
economy is going through tough times, I think the case load goes up. But when things are good and everybody‘s working, it‘s not such a big issue.“
In good times and bad, both the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Traverse City
Human Rights Commission will continue reaching out to people and bringing their message of
diversity to the masses.
“Our community is becoming more and more diverse,“ says Ringsmuth. “When I was
growing up, we had one person of color in our entire class of 750. Now, it‘s not uncommon to go into any grade school in town and have a class where people look different. We‘re not just white Anglo-Saxons anymore.“