Last week, an Anchorage, Alaska women’s homeless shelter filed suit in an Alaska federal district court contending that the city’s recently amended public accommodation law that requires it to house transgender women violates the shelter’s 1st and 14th Amendment rights. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender identity. The complaint (full text) in Downtown Soup Kitchen v. Municipality of Anchorage, (D AK, filed 6/30/2021), says in part:
Defendants insist Hope Center’s religious beliefs— specifically, its beliefs about sexuality and gender—are discriminatory and deserving of punishment. In Defendants’ view, providing charitable shelter exclusively to vulnerable women is unlawful sex and gender-identity discrimination….
Because of its religious beliefs and desire to create a safe and secure environment, Hope Center allows only biological women to stay overnight at the shelter….
No Hope Center policy prohibits biological women who identify as men from accessing the shelter….
ADF issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.