These Flight Attendants Said They Were Fired for Questioning Alaska Airlines’ Support for the Equality Act

First Liberty reported that two flight attendants sued Alaska Airlines for firing them after questioning the airline’s support for the Equality Act, a bill that Star Parker said would make the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) “null and void.”

Senator Chuck Schumer introduced RFRA in 1993, and then-president Bill Clinton signed it into law. The law bars the federal government from discriminating against religious Americans.

The Equality Act would make sexual orientation and “gender identity” protected classes under federal law, which would impinge on religious freedom.

Marli Brown and Lacey Smith said the airline posted an article about its support for the Equality Act to an internal employee message board and solicited comments. The two “felt compelled by their Christian faith to post one comment each, asking about the impact of the Equality Act on civil rights for religion and women in the workplace.”

Alaska Airlines immediately removed their posts, removed them from their flight schedules, and fired them.

Brown and Smith sued the airline for terminating them and the flight attendants’ union for failing to protect them. From First Liberty:

“Alaska Airlines ‘canceled’’ Lacey and Marli because of their religious beliefs, flagrantly disregarding federal civil rights laws that protect people of faith from discrimination,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “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.”

Alaska Airlines called the fired flight attendants’ comments discriminatory, hateful, and offensive. Brown and Smith said in their complaint that religion is a protected class, but the airline doesn’t think so.

Photo credit: By Sam Almo-Milkin – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link

Do you like this post? Sign up for more!