Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 24, 2023 / 16:00 pm
A Catholic parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is taking a legal battle to an appellate court amid fears that a state civil rights law could be used to restrict its religious liberty in matters related to gender identity and sexuality.
Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to block the state attorney general’s office from using the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act to force the parish to hire employees who reject Catholic teachings on sexuality and gender identity or change its policies toward students in its parish school who have same-sex attraction or identify as transgender. The parish is asking that the appellate court overturn a lower court’s decision to throw out its lawsuit.
Although the attorney’s general office has not issued any legal warnings or brought any complaints to the parish, the lawsuit argues that it could be targeted based on the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent reinterpretation of the law.
The act has existed since 1977, but in July 2022, the court upheld a Michigan Civil Rights Commission interpretation of the law, which stated that the prohibition of discrimination based on a person’s sex also included discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.