The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss an employment discrimination lawsuit against the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for firing a 31-year employee after learning she was a lesbian.
The case pits religious freedom against the employment rights of homosexuals and tests the boundaries of Minnesota's Human Rights Act.
Sara Thorson, who worked as a mail clerk with the BGEA in Minneapolis, was fired in 2002. Thorson was forced to admit her sexual orientation after co-workers spotted her kissing another woman in a parking lot near her job and reported her to supervisors.
She argued her duties had nothing to do with the religious mission of the organization.
But BGEA attorneys countered that her "lifestyle" did not conform with the purpose of the organization. They also argued that religious groups, under Minnesota law, are exempted from prohibitions against discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation.
In its nine-page decision, the appeals court agreed with BGEA's position.
"BGEA's business is the promotion of its evangelical ministry. Its business activities are not a matter of ordinary commerce. Rather, they are exclusively in furtherance of BGEA's religious purpose," the court stated.
Thorson's attorney, Joni Thome, said Tuesday her client has not decided if she will appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
"I know my client understood from the beginning that this would not be a simple decision on the part of any court, but at the same time, this decision … is one that allows a nonprofit religious organization to discriminate on the basis of their employee's sexual orientation no matter what they are doing," Thome said. "That is wrong. That is flat-out wrong."
Thome said Tuesday's decision creates a "blanket exemption" that could affect the jobs of every employee of a religious organization regardless of their job description.
Minnesota's Human Rights Act went into effect in 1993. It was one of the first in the country to include sexual orientation, in addition to race, gender, disability, age and religion as conditions that should not be discriminated against in public and private employment.
However, an exemption clause allows nonprofit religious organizations and youth organizations to refuse to hire someone because he or she is gay.
According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force based in Washington, D.C., there is no federal law that protects homosexuals from employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in either the public or private sectors.
However, at the state level, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington prohibit such discrimination in the public sector. Sexual orientation discrimination is prohibited in the public and private sectors in 11 states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Officials with the BGEA, which previously was based in Minneapolis and is now headquartered in North Carolina, were pleased with Tuesday's ruling.
"The policy of our organization has been consistent throughout the years. It's obviously and overtly a Christian organization with a certain set of values that our employees are well aware of," said Mark DeMoss, a BGEA spokesman.