The 3 - July 9, 2023

This week's edition of The 3, featuring three recent stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes a federal appeals court ruling that clarifies the conditions in employment law under which a religious accommodation can be granted regarding hiring LGBT individuals.  Also, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the rights of a graphic designer to not be forced to communicate messages that violate her religious beliefs has affected the case of Oregon bakers who declined to provide a cake for a ceremony celebrating a same-sex union.  And, a British woman has received a significant financial award in her case, involving the termination of her contract due to her beliefs on gender and sexuality.

Federal appeals court clarifies Bostock, provides for religious freedom protection

The Bostock decision has been used and abused in a variety of ways - the current administration uses it to change the definition of "sex" in civil rights law to mean gender identity or sexual orientation.  But, as Liberty Counsel points out:

In June 2020, SCOTUS heard the Bostock case which combined several lawsuits, including a case where a homosexual man was fired from a county job after inquiring about starting an LGBT softball league at work, and a case where a funeral home employee was fired after dressing as a different gender. The High Court ruled that “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.”

But, the website noted: "However, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in Bostock’s majority opinion that employers who have religious objections to employing LGBT people could possibly raise those claims in their specific cases."

So, that's what Braidwood Management, a Texas company did - it sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which, according to Liberty Counsel, "claims that bias against LGBT workers is a form of unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." As the legal organization pointed out, Braidwood "operates under Christian beliefs and doctrine, which includes 'marriage is between one man and one woman.' The company, which will not hire people engaged in behavior that is 'sexually immoral or gender non-conforming,' brought the case against the [EEOC]..."

And, Braidwood's position was upheld unanimously by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. It found, as Liberty Counsel stated: "...that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 protects not just a church, but a private entity from violating their religious beliefs by having to employ someone who does not share the same beliefs or whose conduct does not align with the company’s views. The RFRA prevents the federal government from enforcing otherwise neutral laws that burden a person’s free exercise of religion. In this case, the RFRA protects a Christian business from having to employ homosexual or gender-dysphoric employees who are incompatible with the company’s biblical views on sexuality and marriage."

The court said, "Braidwood maintains that it has sincere and deeply held religious beliefs that heterosexual marriage is the only form of marriage sanctioned by God, pre-marital sex is wrong, and ‘men and women are to dress and behave in accordance with distinct and God-ordained, biological sexual identity.’ To that end, the EEOC guidance almost assuredly burdens the exercise of Braidwood’s religious practice.”

303 Creative Supreme Court decision affects another long-standing case

On the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the 303 Creative, upholding the rights of a graphic designer to decline to communicate messages that violate her deeply-held beliefs, the high court sent a case it had reviewed before and sent back to the state level back again.

First Liberty reported on Friday, June 30, that in the case involving cake bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries...

...originally imposed a devastating $135,000 damage award against the Kleins for violating Oregon’s public accommodations statute after they declined to design and create a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. Following a series of appeals, the Supreme Court in 2019 returned the case to Oregon for further consideration in light of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which held that government officials cannot be hostile to the free exercise of the religious beliefs of its citizens. In today’s order, the Court returned the case to Oregon to reconsider in light of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.

After the case was returned in 2019, the Oregon Court of Appeals waived the amount for damages, but then sent it on to the BOLI, which then assessed the Kleins $30,000. 

British Court sides with woman who lost her job due to beliefs on gender

And, in the United Kingdom, there was another positive development in the area of freedom of expression. CBN News reported that, as the result of a court decision involving her views on gender, Maya Forstater, described as a "researcher," received a significant cash award.  An article from last week said:

As CBN News reported, Forstater shared her opinion on sex and gender in 2018 in a series of tweets that didn't sit well with some of her colleagues at the Centre for Global Development (CGD). Following several complaints, Forstater's employer did not renew her contract for the following year.

Forstater took legal action when her contract was not extended, stating, "My belief...is that sex is a biological fact and is immutable. There are two sexes, male and female. Men and boys are male. Women and girls are female. It is impossible to change sex. These were until very recently understood as basic facts of life by almost everyone."

In 2021, the British High Court determined that her views were protected under the U.K.'s Equality Act.  The CBN article said, "Judge Akhlaq Choudhury said Forstater's views might be offensive to some but were covered by freedom of belief protections in the Equality Act."

Earlier this year, Christian Today reported that Forstater "has given expert evidence in support of a Christian teacher who faces being struck off the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) after allegedly misgendering a pupil."  The article from February said that Joshua Sutcliffe...

...was suspended from his Oxfordshire school over the incident and eventually dismissed. He took legal action against the school for constructive dismissal and discrimination, and the case was settled out of court.

Ms Forstater was asked to give evidence at Monday's hearing on the compelled use of preferred pronouns and the dangers of affirming trans policies in schools.