Michigan has won tremendous battle in the protracted war against anti-gay bullying. The Wolverine State's Democratic House of Representatives voted 59-50 to pass Matt's Safe School Law. Named after Matt Epling - a 14-year old who killed himself after enduring years of harassment - the bill specifically protects queer students from schoolyard jerks.

You may recall from a recent Happy Endings, conservatives had objected to the move, depleting pro-gay activist's momentum. A representative from the state's Triangle Foundation asked us to post something on it in hopes that it would make a difference. Apparently it did. Following the vote, that same representative sent us a note:

We've made it more than halfway - yesterday the Michigan House passed Matt's Safe Schools Law by a 59-50 vote! Now we're on to the Michigan Senate, which is still Republican-led thanks to gerrymandering. However, if we can get it through the Senate we're guaranteed the governor's signature.

I'll deeply appreciate anything you can do to help us keep a spotlight on this.

As the Triangle Foundation flack mentioned, the bill now faces a Republican controlled Senate. Not surprisingly, the GOPpers object to "special protections" for gay people and will do everything in their power to fight the bill's passage. This argument proves the backbone for so many conservative arguments against pro-gay laws. Of course, no one objects - not too loudly, at least - to laws protecting people based on their religion. It seems to us that people find spiritual protections preferable because there are more religions than socially recognized "sexualities". This got us thinking: what if we lived in a world in which there were more than just the popularly conceived "straight" and "gay"? A world a la Sam Delany's Trouble on Triton? What then?

People could hardly object to "protecting" multiple sexualities. If they did, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot: they would be explicitly "protecting" heterosexuality (which they are, but to a less noticeable extent). Now, a lot of gay people - and, we suppose, straight people - scoff at the idea of bisexuality. People typically dismiss self-proclaimed bisexuals as latent homosexuals. This, we feel, does all of us a disservice. Rather than falling for the heterosexist binary, it would be far more beneficial to broaden our ideologies to include a more queer mentality. But, that's just our opinion. What say you, reader?