Michigan: Christian healthcare group files legal challenge against transgender treatment rules
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A Christian non-profit healthcare organization in Michigan filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block new state regulations that would require its staff to violate their beliefs by providing “transition” treatment to patients identifying as transgender, the Washington Times reports.
Represented by the conservative law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Christian Healthcare Centers filed suit in Michigan’s Western District against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel; Michigan Department of Civil Rights Executive Director John E. Johnson, Jr.; and seven members of the state’s Civil Rights Commission, the Times said.
The lawsuit attests that recent court rulings have reinterpreted Michigan civil rights law “to include sexual orientation and gender identity” and that this would force Christian Healthcare Centers to hire staff members who do not share the group’s values and are therefore willing to perform transitioning treatments, the Times said.
Moreover, the suit says the state could force the organization to provide cross-sex hormones and to “use pronouns that do not accord with a person’s biological sex,” the Times reports.
“Christian Healthcare Centers serves everybody with compassionate care and respect, including patients who identify as the opposite of their biological sex, providing them with the same high-quality care it provides to all of its patients, ADF senior counsel Hal Frampton said in a statement. “Yet this lawsuit is necessary to protect Christian Healthcare Centers’ constitutional rights and to ensure other religious organizations can freely operate according to the dictates of their faith.”
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