A Catholic bookstore has filed a federal lawsuit against a Florida city to contest a "gender-discrimination" law, even though the establishment has not been cited for violating it.
On February 22, the Queen of Angels Catholic Bookstore, also referred to as The Catholic Store, Inc., filed a civil action in U.S. district court against the City of Jacksonville, Florida. QACB and its owner, Christie DeTrude, have implemented a firm pronoun policy which accords with Catholic teaching. To wit, all store employees are required to use pronouns that correspond with a person's biological sex, even if the person prefers alternate pronouns.
"Should someone interacting with the bookstore request a pronoun or form of address that would violate our policy, employees should respectfully and charitably decline, and instead use a form of address that does not contradict someone’s biologically originating sex, such as the person’s first or last name," the policy states.
DeTrude and other QACB employees fear that this policy, which follows their religious beliefs, might violate a city ordinance which treats those with an alternate "gender identity" as a protected class. The ordinance forbids businesses from treating people differently because of their professed gender identity, which can be demonstrated "by a person's consistent and uniform assertion."
