Liberty Counsel recently assisted a Social Security Administration (SSA) employee in reaching a settlement agreement whereby the agency has granted him a religious accommodation from adhering to policies and tasks that violate his religious convictions. Under the agreement, he no longer has to adjudicate “same-sex marriage” claims and adhere to other gender-related policies that violate his biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality. After initially being denied a reasonable accommodation, the employee filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), which has now closed his complaint making the settlement agreement final.

The settlement agreement also cited President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that rebukes the false gender ideology. Under the order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the federal government now rejects the concept of “gender identity” and recognizes there are only two sexes, male and female.

As the order states, gender ideology is the “false claim” that “males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa,” while requiring society to believe that it is all true.

Due to the order, the employee’s settlement agreement reads that he “will not be required to perform any actions in connection with his duties that would violate the terms of Executive Order 14168.” This means the employee will no longer be required to address others by false pronouns and use restrooms with the opposite sex. 

While the federal government recognizes entitlements and benefits for “same-sex marriage,” under the Biden administration the SSA had also recognized more than just two genders, mandated the use of false personal pronouns, and mandated “acceptance of any gender using any bathroom.” Contrary to these policies, the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs center on biblical teachings that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that God created people as “male and female” where people cannot change their “God-given gender.” While the employee’s beliefs teach him to treat everyone with dignity, respect, and fairness, he requested an accommodation from having to adjudicate “same-sex marriage” social security claims, change a claimant’s gender marker, use false pronouns, and use restrooms with the opposite sex, to avoid violating his conscience and his religious beliefs. 

Initially, the agency’s management simply reassigned him to other cases not involving “same-sex” relationships with no negative impact to agency operations. But then, the SSA denied him a religious accommodation citing those reassignments as creating an “undue hardship” on the agency. 

Liberty Counsel assisted the employee in navigating the SSA equal opportunity complaint process as well as the federal protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee on the basis of religion unless the employer is unable to reasonably accommodate the employee’s religious exercise without undue hardship to its business. 

Having already displayed that the agency could accommodate the employee regarding work assignments without undue hardship, the SSA agreed to reassign or trade any claims or cases involving “same-sex marriages” or changing a claimant’s sex marker based on his religious objections. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This settlement agreement complies with Title VII allowing the employee to do his job without violating his religious beliefs. There simply was no hardship for the Social Security Administration in accommodating this employee's religious beliefs. In addition, President Trump’s executive order recognizing biological reality and the binary nature of sex is now helping protect the free exercise of religion and free speech in the federal workplace. People have a right to live according to their conscience and religious beliefs.”