Michigan has halted investigations of anti-LGBT discrimination after the state’s Attorney General Bill Schuette issued a formal opinion that affirms it’s legal to discriminate in the state. There is no federal law in the US that protects LGBT people from discrimination due to opposition from Republicans in Congress, meaning people are often reliant on an inconsistent patchwork of state-level laws. In Michigan, the state’s Civil Rights Commission had relied upon an interpretation of a law that bans discrimination based on sex as also outlawing discrimination against LGBT people, due to the sexually-motivated nature of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. However, in a dramatic intervention this week, Schuette – who is a Republican candidate for Governor as well as the state’s legal chief, claimed that the interpretation is invalid.