A Christian Homeless Shelter is Suing Over the Right to Reject Trans People

[NeoGreen]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/01/16/a-christian-homeless-shelter-is-suing-over-the-right-to-reject-trans-people/

A Christian Homeless Shelter is Suing Over the Right to Reject Trans People
By Sarahbeth Caplin, January 16, 2019

The same conservative legal group that said it was okay for a baker to deny services to a gay couple is suing the city of Anchorage, Alaska over a Christian-run women’s shelter that wants to deny help to transgender clients.

Alliance Defending Freedom says Hope Center should have the ability to say no to trans women who seek their help because the other people there “shouldn’t be forced to sleep or disrobe in the same room as a man.”

Specifically, ADF is targeting a non-discrimination ordinance in Anchorage that led to city officials investigating the center after a trans person was turned away.

Alliance attorney Ryan Tucker said many women at the shelter are survivors of violence and allowing biological men would be highly traumatic for them. He told U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason that women have told shelter officials that if biological men are allowed to spend the night alongside them, “they would rather sleep in the woods,” even in extreme cold like the city has experienced this week with temperatures hovering around zero.

Well, that’s their problem, isn’t it?

Domestic violence survivors who are fleeing an abusive situation don’t often have many options when it comes to temporary housing. Trans people shouldn’t have to pay the price for their internalized prejudice.

To use their emotional fragility as an excuse to discriminate against trans people is a low blow.

To be fair, there were other relevant circumstances surrounding this case. Shelter officials say they didn’t actually reject a trans person; rather, the trans woman who showed up was “injured, inebriated, and past check-in time,” so they sent her to a local hospital. Even if they would have rejected a trans person, they didn’t in this case. Furthermore, they say, homeless shelters are exempt from the nondiscrimination ordinance.

Rather than sticking to those talking points, though, ADF insists the shelter shouldn’t have to accommodate trans people.

As Anchorage was voting on whether or not to strike transgender people from the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance, an attorney for the shelter told a local newspaper that they would never admit a “biological male” into the facility despite how the vote turned out.

The measure was defeated at the ballot box.

Does the shelter plan on doing mandatory genital inspections before allowing people in? Seems like a great way to ensure that no one shows up at their doors…

[RKP5637]

1. It's typical of religions, demanding they be able to persecute people. It's been endless with these

christian hate groups and others.

[3catwoman3]

2. WWJD?

Last edited Fri Jan 18, 2019, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Not that, from what I remember learning about JC in Sunday school many decades ago.

(long time agnostic here)

[FiveGoodMen]

3. WWMFCsD?

[Pope George Ringo II]

4. For a Klondike Bar?

[akraven]

5. Then they aren't Christian.

Our shelters here in Fairbanks are, mostly - but they deny no one.

[Voltaire2]

6. Nope they are Christians.

You don’t get to decide who is or isn’t a true Christian. There are thousands of versions of Christianity. Many are grossly intolerant of lgbt people.

[akraven]

7. Intolerance isn't Christian. Period. Full stop. nt

[Voltaire2]

8. Well obviously it is.

The evidence of Christian intolerance goes back to the earliest history of the religion.

I understand that you would like to define all the christians you disagree with as not true Christians but I can assure you that they have the same opinion regarding your sort of Christianity.

[marylandblue]

9. That's also part of Christianity

Christians have always argued about who is a true Christian.

"Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

So they do get to define who is in and who isn't, they just can't agree on who's right.

[Pope George Ringo II]

10. So what was Martin Luther? If not xian, what would you call him?

You remember the guy? Nailed some stuff to a church door? He made all the papers.

Evolution of his views
Luther's attitude toward the Jews changed over the course of his life. In the early phase of his career—until around 1536—he expressed concern for their plight in Europe and was enthusiastic at the prospect of converting them to Christianity through his religious reforms. Being unsuccessful in that, in his later career, Luther denounced Judaism and called for harsh persecution of its followers, so that they might not be allowed to teach. In a paragraph from his On the Jews and Their Lies he deplores Christendom's failure to expel them.[1] Moreover, he proposed "What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews":[1]

"First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools … This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians …"
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed."
"Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them."
"Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb …"
"Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside …"
"Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them …"
"Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow … But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., … then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., … then eject them forever from the country …"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism