Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
First Liberty Institute and the Ard Law Group represent two former flight attendants who said they were fired from Alaska Airlines for questioning the company’s support for the so-called Equality Act.
The two legal firms asked the court to grant a motion for summary judgment in favor of the women, who contend that Alaska Airlines violated their religious freedom and the flight attendants’ union failed to adequately defend them.
Marli Brown and Lacey Smith, who are Christians, asked questions in the company’s online forum about why the company supported the Equality Act, which would make sexual orientation and “gender identity” protected classes under federal law.
These Christians know that such a law would eventually impinge on their constitutional right to religious freedom. The women said the flight attendants’ union didn’t protect them after Alaska Airlines removed their posts from the forum, removed them from their flight schedules, and fired them.
But the union not only failed to protect them; its members disparaged them. From First Liberty:
Court documents filed yesterday reveal the extent of the union’s involvement. Union MEC President reported the flight attendants’ comments to Alaska Airlines leadership. In a company chat among union representatives, one stated, “Can we PLEASE get someone to shut down comments, or put Marli and Lacey in a burlap bag and drop them in a well.” Union representatives repeatedly disparaged the flight attendants, calling them “bigots” and “pukes.” Referring to Lacey, the Union President said, “I hate her.”
According to First Liberty, the vice president of inflight at Alaska Airlines testified that an employee using the term “opposite sex” violates the discrimination policy, because the term implies that there are only two sexes.
Alaska Airlines also treated the women differently than it treated an employee who threatened violence against Christians. First Liberty said “he was given the lowest level of discipline.”
Brown and Smith alleged, among other things, that Alaska Airlines and the flight attendants’ union created a hostile work environment based on religion.
Photo credit: By Sam Almo-Milkin – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link
