A step in the right direction

According to this article, the governor of Michigan has added discrimination against transgendered people to the list of reason that a person cannot be fired in a state job. This adds to religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, height, weight, marital status, politics, disability or genetic information as reasons that a person cannot be discriminated against in the workplace. As a fellow human being and someone who wants equal standing for all and abhors discrimination, I applaud this decision. Will this become a trend among other states? I have no illusions that this will happen in the South where I live, but among other states will it spread? I am sure there are other states that include being trangendered as part of the reasons that someone cannot be discriminated against, as I am not very informed about the right of the transgendered, but this is the first time I have noticed an article about this. Is this the next step for states that have already accepted sexual orientation as not being a valid reason for discrimination? It is interesting, though, that the local conservative organization chalked this up to just pandering to the gay vote rather than a real issue. Is the gay vote really that big a deal that a governor would risk alienating a portion of the public, the conservative vote, if it wasn't happening?