store’s “gender identity” bathroom policy, even though the employee promised to uphold the policy while on the job!
The Catholic League is reporting on the case of Javier Chavez, a Senior Store Detective at a Macy’s store in Flushing, New York who received a phone call from a coworker informing him that a man had entered a ladies room with a female companion. As a result, a female customer and her daughter were afraid to enter because of the man’s presence. A security employee who reports to Chavez asked the man to leave and use the men’s room instead. He left, but complained to store officials that he identified as a woman.
An Assistant Security Manager later informed him that transgendered persons were allowed to use the restroom of their choice. Surprised by the policy, he stated that it was contrary to his in the ladies restroom, which surprised Chavez. Chavez, a Catholic, said that this was against his religion and the Bible, but that he would enforce the policy as required.
Instead of leaving it at that, Macy's pressed the matter, summoning Chavez to the Human Resources Manager who suspended him. He was later terminated.
Chavez filed an official complaint in which he states that: "After my employer learned that I was a practicing Catholic, with religious concerns about this policy, I was terminated because of my religion, in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law."
This is not the first time Macy's has sacked a Christian worker because of its bathroom policy. In 2011, a Macy's store in San Antonio, Texas fired Natalie Johnson after she refused to let a man use a woman's fitting room.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, calls the Chavez incident a clear case of religious discrimination.
“The most basic religious right is the right to believe,” Donohue writes. “If conscience rights can be vitiated, the First Amendment means nothing. Macy's has no legal, or moral, grounds to stand on. For merely holding beliefs that are contrary to the store's policy, Chavez was fired. This is what totalitarian regimes do, not American commercial establishments.”
The case is currently pending before the New York State Division of Human Rights.
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