A former Bath & Body Works store manager in Utah is alleging she was unfairly terminated for her religious beliefs about pronoun use.
First Liberty Institute, the law firm representing Jocelyn Boden, filed a discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday, asserting that Boden was fired for refusing to comply with the company’s pronoun policy.
Boden, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was terminated after declining to use a transgender employee’s pronouns, citing her religious beliefs, according to the charge.
“No one should be forced to choose between their job and their faith,” Stephanie Taub, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, said in a news release. “Bath & Body Works could have easily worked with Jocelyn and offered an accommodation, but instead they choose to violate state and federal law and fire her.”
In a statement, a Bath & Body Works spokesperson said, “Bath & Body Works complies with all laws concerning employment practices. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate in our management of our associates on the basis of any protected status.”
The law firm alleges that Boden’s firing violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin and requires employers to provide reasonable religious accommodations — and the Utah Antidiscrimination Act, which bars termination based on religious beliefs.
After a transgender employee started working at Boden’s store in Layton, where she had been employed for 3½ years, “multiple team members chastised and alienated” her for not using that employee’s pronouns, the charge states.
In her statement supporting the charge, Boden said she was willing to use the employee’s chosen name but referred to the employee as “she” when speaking with other staff, claiming she could not “in good conscience refer to an associate by ‘preferred pronouns’ that were inconsistent with reality and my moral beliefs” as a Latter-day Saint.
After other employees raised concerns with the company’s human resources department about Boden’s refusal to use the transgender employee’s pronouns, HR contacted Boden, according to her statement. Two days later, on May 8, she was terminated.
Boden states that she received no warning or disciplinary action before she was fired.
After a charge is filed, the EEOC may choose to investigate the claims, according to the agency’s website.
First Liberty Institute specializes in cases involving religion in the public square. It represented a high school football coach in Washington state who was dismissed after leading his team in prayers on the field after games. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 that the coach’s prayers were protected speech.