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Luke Ash, the Louisiana bi-vocational pastor, who says he was fired from his librarian job because he declined to use a co-worker’s preferred pronouns, is now demanding reinstatement to his position with back pay.
Acting on Ash’s behalf, Liberty Counsel is demanding that the East Baton Rouge Parish library reinstate Ash to his position, revise its pronoun policy, and provide back pay to Ash from the date of his termination.
Liberty explained in its demand letter: “The bottom line is this: there is no compelling government interest in requiring Mr. Ash (or other employees) to lie; or to affirmatively use false pronouns that do not accurately reflect biological sex, particularly outside the hearing of the person who dislikes accurate, sex-based pronouns. The library has acted unlawfully in firing Mr. Ash.”
CBN News has reached out to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for comment and has not received a response.
As CBN News has reported, Ash worked a second job at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library to support his wife and four children.
After four months on the job, Ash says he was reprimanded for not using the preferred pronouns of a transgender colleague during a conversation with another coworker.
“I was in a conversation with a co-worker about someone that she was training, and I did not use preferred pronouns in that conversation,” he recounted while appearing on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins”. “That co-worker corrected me [and] said that the person that she was training preferred to be called ‘he.’ I refused to use those preferred pronouns.”
The next day, Ash says his supervisor called him into a meeting and showed him the library’s inclusivity policy, which stated in part that all staff must “recognize the value of our colleagues and give them the respect and support each of us needs to live and thrive.”
Liberty says “after the Library supervisors showed Mr. Ash the policy, they asked him if he was going to continue refusing to use false pronouns. Mr. Ash told them that he would not lie. The meeting concluded.”
Ash shared, “The next day I was reprimanded by my supervisor and the head of reference, and Thursday morning I was fired.”
The pastor told Perkins in July, for the most part, he “tried to do a good job and respect everybody that came my way.”
However, Ash explained that he drew the line at referring to his coworker by their preferred pronouns because his religious convictions matter.
“The library made their decision that they would rather have a difficult conversation with me than for a transgender person to hear something that they didn’t want to hear,” he said.
Liberty Counsel says that Ash’s termination is unlawful and violates the Louisiana Constitution, the Louisiana Protection of Religious Freedom Act, and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Pastor Ash’s sincere religious beliefs that ‘gender identity’ is inconsistent with God’s design for human sexuality prevent him from believing that a female worker is a man regardless of how she wishes to identify,” the group wrote.
The group explains that, additionally, the library made no attempt to accommodate his religious beliefs as required by Title VII law.
“[The] Library has no compelling government interest in requiring employees to speak pronouns that do not accurately reflect biological sex, when employees are not required to speak at all; nor in requiring employees to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs,” wrote Liberty Counsel.
Liberty says the library maintains that Ash was not fired for refusing to use false pronouns but was a probational employee and had been fired for other infractions.
“The pretextual ‘infractions’ narrative is baseless and will be unavailing should the matter require litigation to vindicate the rights of Mr. Ash,” states the letter.
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