“The court finds that the funeral home has met its initial burden of showing that enforcement of Title VII, and the body of sex-stereotyping case law that has developed under it, would impose a substantial burden on its ability to conduct business in accordance with its sincerely held religious beliefs,” Cox wrote.
Jillian Weiss, Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, told reporters this ruling may set a devastating precedent for transgender Americans.
“In ruling that an employer can force its employee to wear ‘gender neutral’ clothing because of the employers’ religious beliefs, the federal court has ignored both Supreme Court and appeals court rulings that correctly understand gender discrimination to be as illegal as sex discrimination. It would be sad indeed if we are to go back to the days in which people could be forced to conform to outmoded masculine and feminine stereotypes in order to keep their jobs.”
And an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan traces this straight back to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling.
