A battle of constitutional rights. Equal treatment versus religious exercise.
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Just days before Houston's annual LGBTQ Pride Celebration, one of the city's most outspoken LGBTQ opponents landed a huge circuit court victory, with a trio of high court judges finding that his Katy company could deny employment to gay and transgender workers.
A panel of lifetime appointees from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in favor of Bear Creek Bible Church and Braidwood Management Inc., a Christian-based company owned and controlled by ultraconservative talk radio host Steven Hotze, a perennial filer of lawsuits against progressive causes and champion of the anti-transgender bathroom bill, who spearheaded a voter fraud investigation that ended in an armed confrontation. The court determined that the nondenominational Christian church in Katy and Hotze's health and wellness business are not mandated to abide by federal discrimination law and can therefore decide for themselves whether to hire or keep employees based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Braidwood Management follows the belief among some Christians that "marriage is between one man and one woman," the court's opinion said. When the company brought the case challenging the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it said it wouldn't hire people who engage in "sexually immoral or gender non-conforming" behaviors. The Bear Creek church's bylaws state that “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”
The church and business' complaint was filed as a 2018 class action in Houston federal court, on behalf of Hotze, the U.S. Pastor Council and others seeking a religious exemption to federal laws that prohibit workplace discrimination. The suit highlighted the fact that same-sex marriage is on equal terms as opposite-sex marriage, under federal law, and that workplace protection ensure that employees have access to restrooms based on their "gender identity." These are two policies from which the religious organizations sought exemptions.
