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Country: US

State: Michigan

Situation:

I work for a large employer in Michigan. We have over 10,000 employees total. My employer bans discrimination on the basis of an incredibly long list of characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

It seems to me that they have crafted this policy specifically to keep Christians away by making the company unwelcome to us. Had they told me the policy before I was hired, I might have voluntarily withdrawn myself from the hiring process, and they could claim "not a culture fit". But doesn't their culture discriminate against Christian employees by being incompatible with Christian views?

It would seem that: The policy named above, that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, discriminates against Christians who believe that deviant sexualities are against God.

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  • 4
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about the law.
    – BlueDogRanch
    Nov 13, 2019 at 2:16
  • @BlueDogRanch I'm sorry you feel that way. Employment discrimination on the basis of religion is very much against the law.
    – notmySOaccount
    Nov 13, 2019 at 2:17
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    What makes you think that the policy was crafted "to keep Christians away", as opposed to allow everyone with "deviant sexualities"? The employer may simply not know or care than some groups do not accept that.
    – Greendrake
    Nov 13, 2019 at 2:53
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    You don't have to be gay or intersex, the same as they don't have to be Christian. They can't hassle you for being Christian, the same as you can't hassle them for being gay or intersex. The only discrimination this policy causes is against people who for irrelevant reasons refuse to do their own jobs or prevent others from doing theirs effectively.
    – user4657
    Nov 13, 2019 at 2:54
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    If you didn't know they were gay or intersex or trans, would you experience that harm? No. Therefore, it is not their presence that harms you, but the combination of your religious beliefs and your knowledge about some aspect of their person. Those are entirely on you to manage, not your coworkers and not your employer.
    – user4657
    Nov 27, 2019 at 3:02

1 Answer 1

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What discrimination?

As explained in Conflict between a religious belief that accounts for the existence of transgender people vs. one that doesn't the Constitutional protection of the Free Exercise Clause applies to the exercise of a deeply held belief (religious or not).

So, let's accept that a person believes that certain sexual practices or gender identity is morally repugnant for whatever reason and that belief triggers the Constitutional protections. That means, that the person cannot be forced to engage in those sexual practices or adopt a different gender identity. It does not mean that they have a licence to discriminate against people who do in a work or public environment - they can, of course, choose to avoid such people in their private life.

Alternatively, if the person believes that they are required by their faith to discriminate on the basis of those characteristics then such a belief does not get Constitutional protection as it is now affecting the rights of others. In the same way that someone who believed in human sacrifice would not get Constitutional protection.

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