SAN FRANCISCO, California: A Washington state anti-discrimination law that would require the Christian homeless shelter to hire LGBTQ+ people and others who are against its religious beliefs, including those on sexuality and marriage, was challenged by the shelter in a federal appeals court this week.
Union Gospel Mission in Yakima, about 150 miles southeast of Seattle, has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive a lawsuit dismissed by a lower court.
Washington's Law Against Discrimination prohibits employers with at least eight employees from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Religious organizations are exempt, but the state's Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the exemption should only apply to ministerial positions.
The mission hires only co-religionists and expects "employees to abstain from sexual immorality, including adultery, nonmarried cohabitation, and homosexual conduct," according to court documents.
The Washington state attorney general's office said the mission sued preemptively and prematurely, believing it might have to enforce the law someday, even though the state said it was not investigating the mission.
But members of the three-judge appellate panel expressed skepticism with the state.
Two judges nominated by former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, both Republicans, pressed Daniel Jeon, an assistant attorney general, to swear his office would not enforce the law against the charity.
Jeon said the mission's job descriptions and other information stated that all staff employees are ministers to clients, donors and volunteers, so they do not fall under the law. But he could not disavow enforcement in the future if his office received other information. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is a Democrat and a champion of gay rights.
Ryan Tucker, senior counsel with the alliance, said the mission has about 150 employees. CEO Mike Johnson could not hire an IT consultant and operations assistant for fear of being penalized. The mission operates a homeless shelter, addiction-recovery programs, meal services, and medical clinics.
U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke dismissed the case last year, also agreeing with attorneys for the state that the lawsuit filed by Yakima's mission was a prohibited appeal of another case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.
In 2017, a lawsuit was filed by Matt Woods, a bisexual Christian man who was denied a job as an attorney at a legal aid clinic operated by the mission in Seattle. The state Supreme Court sent the case back to trial to determine if the role of legal aid attorney would fall under the ministerial exemption.
Woods had dismissed the case because he had gotten the ruling he sought and did not want to sue a homeless shelter.
A challenge by Seattle Pacific University, a Christian university that prohibits employees from same-sex intercourse and marriage, is pending in federal court.