Whitmer brings gender law class to Capitol

LANSING – The Gretchen Whitmer show returned to the Capitol on Tuesday as the former state senator led a parade of lawmakers, lobbyists and activists who talked women’s issues with the class Whitmer is now teaching at Michigan State University.

The speakers addressed everything from human trafficking to sexual education to sexual assaults on campuses to reproductive rights and the different perspective women bring to public policy debates.

State Sen. Judy Emmons, R-Sheridan, for example, talked about a man walking up to her during last year’s debate over human trafficking legislation and asking about the difference between trafficking and “somebody who wants to do this as a living.”

“I just wanted to slap him,” Emmons said.

Women remain a small minority in capitals nationwide and in Congress, and many speakers encouraged the students to run for public office and to talk to lawmakers representing their hometowns.

“You are the future of this state,” state Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, told the students from Whitmer’s Gender and the Law course.

Over two hours, lawmakers and legislative staffers moved in and out of a room on the top floor of the Capitol, where Whitmer held court over a free-wheeling, late-night talk show-style discussion.

Student Alysa Hodgson, a 22-year-old senior from Mason, said after the talk that she found it “comforting there was such a capable team working on these issues.”

Whitmer, a lawyer by trade who was term-limited out of the Legislature last year after 14 years, said the purpose of her class is to “educate them about what our rights are under the law and how much more there is to be done.”

There are eight students in the class, Whitmer’s first foray into teaching. The MSU class wraps up early next month and Whitmer said she’ll teach at the University of Michigan in the fall.

Whitmer, a Democrat from East Lansing, last year also announced the formation of a nonprofit, Right to Health, that would coordinate advocates and promote issues around women’s access to health care.

Her MSU class has covered suffrage, domestic violence, breastfeeding and beyond, and students on Tuesday talked about how those issues affect not just women but society as a whole.

“We need to change how men think about these issues,” state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., D-Meridian Township, told the students.