Power

Churches Sue to Block Massachusetts Law Protecting Transgender Rights

Equality advocates say the lawsuit is unnecessary because religious freedom and houses of worship are already protected under Massachusetts law.

The Democratic-held Massachusetts legislature this year enacted SB 2407, which added “gender identity” to the list of protected classes in the state’s nondiscrimination statute. That law prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodations such as restaurants and meeting halls. Shutterstock

Attorneys from the conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday challenging Massachusetts’ new non-discrimination law, arguing it violates the religious freedom of churches.

The Democratic-held Massachusetts legislature this year enacted SB 2407, which added “gender identity” to the list of protected classes in the state’s nondiscrimination statute. That law prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodations such as restaurants and meeting halls.

The law violates religious freedom, according to the plaintiffs, because it could require churches to allow transgender people to use bathrooms or changing rooms consistent with their gender identity, should the church host a secular event that would open their facility to the general public.

“The activities that Churches allow in their facilities must be consistent with their understanding of God’s truth, and must not present a message that contradicts the Churches’ understanding of God’s truth,” the complaint states. “The Churches’ religious beliefs are that sex is an immutable trait from which springs the natural and healthy desires for physical privacy and modesty in states of partial or full undress, such as in showers, changing rooms and restrooms.”

The lawsuit seeks to block the bill from being enforced against the plaintiffs.

Equality advocates, however, say the lawsuit is unnecessary because religious freedom and houses of worship are already protected under Massachusetts law.

“Religious freedom is rightly protected in Massachusetts and across the country,” Freedom Massachusetts coalition co-chairs Kasey Suffredini and Mason Dunn said in a statement following the filing of the lawsuit. “For decades in Massachusetts, churches have complied with nondiscrimination laws; and updating the law to include transgender people does nothing to take away protections from congregations, clergy, and people of faith to practice what they believe.”

When the gender identity protection was included in the law, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), the agency in charge of enforcing the measure, wrote in its guidance on gender inclusion that a church could be required to follow the law if it holds a secular event, like a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public or if someone rents out the space for a secular event. As the agency’s guidance states, MCAD will review those seeking a religious accommodation for the law on a case-by-case basis.

Churches holding religious services are exempt from the law.

Attorneys for the state of Massachusetts have not yet responded to the lawsuit.