Legal fight continues for Christian healthcare worker fired over transgender policy – Standing for Freedom Center– www.standingforfreedom.com
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Excerpt:
Valerie Kloosterman, a physician’s assistant who was fired by the University of Michigan Health System (UMHW) after she requested a religious accommodation to refrain from using pronouns that conflict with biological sex and from referring patients for gender transition treatments, had her case heard earlier this month before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit…
As part of this, Kloosterman told Fox News that she was required to complete a diversity training module that mandated her to affirm statements about sexual orientation and gender identity that conflicted with her Christian faith.
“Two of those questions specifically stated that gender was fluid. I couldn’t put, ‘No, I don’t believe that, as we were made in the image of God, it’s something that God designed us to be. It’s not something that we’re assigned with at birth.’ But I couldn’t put, ‘No.’ It wouldn’t let me complete the mandatory survey, and they had already stated you would be terminated if you didn’t fill it out,” she said.
She also refused to use pronouns that conflicted with biological reality and for declining to refer patients for transgender medical procedures — both decisions rooted in her deeply held Christian faith and medical judgment. She then asked for a religious exemption to the requirements…
Less than a month later, she was fired. Kloosterman was devastated, tearfully explaining that “I wanted to work there my entire career.”
In response, First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit in October 2022 against Michigan Health on her behalf, arguing that the University of Michigan had violated her First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion and free speech and that health officials had engaged in religious discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Although a federal judge found in favor of Kloosterman, allowing her lawsuit to proceed, Michigan Health appealed the case by invoking its right to use arbitration as a way to fight against Kloosterman. As a result, the case has continued to wind itself through the courts and ended up before the Sixth Circuit appeals court in early February.
