Churches can't limit bathroom use to biological gender or make anyone feel unwelcome, the state says.
A pair of Iowa churches are challenging a new interpretation of their state’s civil rights act, which prohibits Christians from making gay or transgender people feel unwelcome and from restricting church bathroom use to a person’s biological gender.
A 2007 amendment to the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, among other factors.
Religious institutions are exempt, but only when they are doing something “related to a bona fide religious purpose.” The language is vague, and no churches have been disciplined for discrimination.
But the newest explanation from the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (ICRC), a law enforcement agency commissioned to end discrimination in Iowa, wrote that “a childcare facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public” would be subject to the regulations.
On July 4, Fort Des Moines Church of Christ filed a federal lawsuit arguing that not exempting church services—all of which are open to the public, they argue—violates the First Amendment. Without full exemption, they fear the state government could censor church teachings.
Churches have always been protected from government intrusion, and they still are,” stated the church’s attorney, Alliance Defending Freedom’s Christiana Holcomb. “They have a firmly established freedom to teach their beliefs and set internal policies that reflect their biblical teachings about marriage and human sexuality. One can hardly imagine a more obvious unconstitutional invasion of the state into the internal affairs of the church.”
The ICRC also announced that individuals may choose their …
