State Rep. Jeremy Moss was angry when he fired off a response to the Orlando nightclub shooting in a Twitter posing that resonated across the country June 12.
And his anger hasn't subsided.
The Tweet put Moss, D-Southfield, under a national spotlight.
"I literally never want to hear again that LGBT people in the bathroom are a threat to public safety," he wrote, referring to the raging debate over restroom access for transgender people.
The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, took hostages and killed people inside a restroom during his rampage at the Pulse nightclub.
Moss's message was re-Tweeted by nearly 79,000 users, including singer John Legend.
Moss, who is gay, said the attacks on the nightclub popular with Orlando's LGBT community took the debate to a "whole new level."
"People are targeting us," Moss said this week.
"... I'm certainly angry. More angry than I've ever been, but the anger has to turn into action for the LGBT community and its allies."
A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded Florida nightclub early Sunday before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said.
His Tweet was inspired by a breakfast conversation with his boyfriend, Moss said.
They were in Detroit that Saturday night for the Motor City Pride Parade, and even spent time at a club popular with the city's LGBT community.
"Waking up to the news really hit us," he said. "It could have been us. It could have been any club in the country."
Moss views opposition to expanding civil rights protections under Michigan law and securing restroom access for transgender people as an attempt to paint lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as predators.
"Reality is, it's really the opposite," said Moss. "The LGBT community is more vulnerable than ever, and not these attackers that people paint us to be."
Moss claims there's an "under the surface homophobia" in the Michigan House that prevented passage this month of a resolution, HR 307 of 2016, that would have declared June "LGBT Pride Month in Michigan."
He said lawmakers have jumped at the chance to approve "Ice Cream Month," or "Craft Beer Month," but allowed HR 307 to expire in committee.
Gideon D'Assandro, spokesman for House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, countered that the resolution has not expired, but remains in committee.
"We pass memorial resolutions right away, but resolutions that include policy recommendations or calls to action always get sent to committee to be worked on, just like any other bill," said D'Assandro. "That's what happened to the LGBT bill, just like every other resolution like that.
"In fact, it is still in committee where it can be worked on and the policy developed."
The full text of the resolution can be viewed here.
"That's the under-the-surface homophobia that we're used to," said Moss. "There are so many things we can do on the state level to move closer to bridge the gap between our community and a community that enjoys full protection from the law."
Moss also wants the state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act expanded to grant equal housing, employment and other protections to the LGBT community.
"This is an everyday attack (on the LGBT) community," he said. "Anybody who is outraged and feels for this community (over the Orlando attack), be outraged – it's outrageous — but be aware that we can be fired and evicted just for being gay."
