A pair of Christian flight Attendants were fired for simply questioning Alaska Airlines’ support for LGBT Bill, now sued for religious discrimination.
This week, Marli Brown and Lacey Smith argued in a federal lawsuit filed that they were the targets of religious discrimination when they were terminated from their jobs in August 2021 solely on the basis of their religious beliefs.
According to First Liberty Institute, the airline dismissed the two “because they asked questions in a company forum about the company’s support for the ‘Equality Act.'”
In early 2021, as Congress was debating the passage of the controversial Equality Act, Alaska Airlines announced its support for the measure on an employee message board and asked employees to comment.
The company had started the conversation about the political agenda and then turned intolerant when the two, Marli Brown and Lacey Smith, raised concerns in the same forum.
The Equality Act, if passed, would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation — which currently include race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
According to their law firm, First Liberty Institute, both Brown and Smith felt “compelled by their Christian faith” to weigh in.
Here’s what Stephanie Taub, senior counsel for First Liberty said in a statement after both flight attendants had requested help from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
“Alaska Airlines ‘canceled’ Lacey and Marli because of their religious beliefs, flagrantly disregarding federal civil rights laws that protect people of faith from discrimination. It is a blatant violation of state and federal civil rights laws to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their religious beliefs and expression. ‘Woke’ corporations like Alaska Airlines think that they do not have to follow the law and can fire employees if they simply don’t like their religious beliefs.”
The company started promoting the Equality Act, which critics have charged would destroy women’s rights across the nation, on an employee message board in 2021. It invited employees to comment.
The proposal would add “sexual orientation and gender identity” as protected classes in federal law, essentially allowing any man who claims to be a woman to put himself in line to benefit from “women’s rights.”
So Smith asked, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” Brown asked, “Does Alaska support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women rights and parental rights? ….”
The company immediately “investigated” them, suspended and then fired them. The airline also made claims that their beliefs were “hateful” and “offensive.”
The airline also was promoting the LGBT agenda with pronoun pins, “He/Him,” “She/Her,” and “They/Them” to employees.
The complaint explains:
“Alaska Airlines may lawfully engage in social advocacy, but it must not do so in a manner that discriminates or creates a hostile work environment against protected classes. Alaska Airlines’ Diversity Statements Fail to Include Religion as a Protected Class … Title VII prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color, and national origin. Other federal statutes prohibit discrimination based on age and disability.”
The First Liberty complaint states:
“Despite Alaska Airlines’ claimed commitment to an inclusive culture and its frequent invitations to employees to dialogue and express a diversity of perspectives, Alaska Airlines created a work environment that is hostile toward religion, and AFA reinforced that company culture. Alaska Airlines and AFA cannot wield their social advocacy as a sword to unlawfully discriminate against religious employees and instead must remain mindful of their legal obligation to ‘do the right thing’ towards all employees, including religious employees. The court must hold Alaska Airlines and the AFA accountable for their discrimination.”
Here’s what WND reported back in 2021:
The Heritage Foundation has explained the Equality Act would penalize Americans who don’t affirm gender ideology, compel individuals to speak messages with which they disagree, would close down charities unless they relinquished their religion, allow for males who call themselves females to participate in sports events designated for girls or women, would coerce medical professionals to perform body-mutilating surgeries when told to, would jeopardize parental rights and “enable sexual assault.”
In the lawsuit, the women also claim that the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) did little to defend them despite its stated duties to help members being discriminated against on the basis of religion.
Sources: WND, First Liberty