Christian homeless shelter challenges Washington state law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ+ hiring practices
SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for a Christian homeless shelter are scheduled to appear before a federal appeals court on Friday to challenge a Washington state anti-discrimination law that would require the charity to hire LGBTQ+ people and others who do not share its religious beliefs, including people of sexual orientation and marriage.
Union Gospel Mission in Yakima, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of Seattle, is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive a lawsuit that was dismissed by a lower court. Alliance Defending Freedom, a global legal organization, is helping the mission.
Ryan Tucker, a senior attorney for the alliance, said the mission could be sued for exercising its “constitutionally protected freedom to employ fellow believers who share the mission’s calling to spread the gospel and care for vulnerable people” in the community.
But U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke dismissed the case last year, agreeing with the state’s attorneys that the lawsuit filed by Yakima’s mission was a prohibited challenge to another case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.
The current case arises from a 2017 lawsuit filed by Matt Woodsa bisexual Christian man who was denied a job as an attorney at a Union Gospel Mission legal aid clinic in Seattle. Washington’s anti-discrimination law exempts religious nonprofits, but in 2021 the state Supreme Court ruled that the religious hiring exemption should apply only to ministerial positions.
The case was remanded to the district court to determine whether the role of legal aid attorney would fall under the exemption. However, Woods said he dismissed the case because he had obtained the ruling he sought and he did not want to seek damages from a homeless shelter.
“I am confident that the trial court would have held that a position as a staff lawyer at a legal aid clinic is not a ministerial position,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
The Union Gospel Mission in Yakima says its policy is to hire only fellow believers who adhere to its religious beliefs and expects “employees to refrain from sexual immorality, including adultery, cohabitation and homosexual conduct,” according to court documents.
The mission has postponed hiring an IT consultant and an operational assistant.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 denied review of the Woods ruling, but Justice Samuel Alito said “the day may soon come when we will have to decide whether the autonomy guaranteed by the First Amendment protects the freedom of religious organizations to hire co-religionists without interference from the state or the judiciary.”