{"id":20604,"date":"2024-01-30T12:01:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=20604"},"modified":"2024-01-30T12:01:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:01:51","slug":"airline-employees-state-they-were-fired-for-their-religious-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/01\/airline-employees-state-they-were-fired-for-their-religious-beliefs","title":{"rendered":"Airline Employees State They Were Fired For Their Religious Beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_20607\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20607\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/01\/flight-attendant-fired_credit-Vacclav-Shutterstock_Inset-First-Liberty-Institure-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20607\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/01\/flight-attendant-fired_credit-Vacclav-Shutterstock_Inset-First-Liberty-Institure-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vacclav \/ Shutterstock.com | Inset: First Liberty Institute \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Two former airline employees are suing Alaska Airlines and their union, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), after allegedly being fired for their religious beliefs and pushback against the company\u2019s support of the Equality Act. The trouble began in 2021 when flight attendants Marli Brown and Laci Smith received a notice on their online company board page. \u201cI went to access my schedule in the morning \u2026 I saw that Alaska had posted an article that just said Alaska supports the Equality Act,\u201d Smith told <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/fired-flight-attendant-blasts-airlines-dei-push-alleges-religious-discrimination-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fox News Digital<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. The Equality Act sought to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. At the time, the vagueness of the bill left Smith with a lot of questions. \u201cFor me personally, I have traditional Christian views on sexual morality: male and female, all of that. I wanted to know what that meant for me as an employee with Alaska Airlines supporting the Equality Act,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Brown and Smith responded to the post on an employee message board. Brown argued that the bill would force \u201cevery American to agree with controversial government-imposed ideology or be treated as an outlaw.\u201d Smith asked the company if they \u201cthought it was possible to regulate morality.\u201d The comment received a response from Alaska Airlines VP of People, Andy Schneider, whom <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13seattle.com\/news\/2-flight-attendants-sue-alaska-airlines-claim-they-were-canceled-for-religious-beliefs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">court documents claim<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0said, \u201cSupporting the Equality Act is not about regulating morality. It\u2019s about supporting laws that allow our LGBTQ+ employees and guests, no matter what state they live in or fly to, to be protected against discrimination.\u201d Smith alleges her post and the comment were later deleted and that she was called in for \u201csomething that I had posted online.\u201d Both Smith and Brown were investigated by airline officials and eventually terminated. The Freedom Liberty Institute (FLI), which is representing Smith, alleges that she was fired \u201cbecause [Alaska Airlines] perceived her moral beliefs about gender identity or sexual orientation to be discriminatory.\u201d According to court documents, \u201cAlaska Airlines VP of Inflight testified that an employee\u2019s use of the term \u2018opposite sex\u2019 violates the Airlines\u2019 discrimination policy because that implies that there are only two sexes.\u201d Alaska Airlines has not commented on that allegation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Smith states that AFA did not accurately defend her after requesting \u201creligious accommodation\u201d during her firing. Court documents further allege that agents from the AFA, including AFA Master Executive Council President Jeff Peterson, reported their comments on the forum to Alaska Airlines, requesting discipline. According to the motion, \u201cPeterson repeatedly referred to Marli and Lacey as \u2018bigots;\u2019 he drew Alaska Airlines\u2019 attention to Plaintiffs\u2019 comments; he told a friend \u2018I hate [Lacey];\u2019 and he told others he supported her discipline.\u201d The AFA has denied the allegations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Stephanie Taub, head of FLI legal counsel, stated the discussion came at a time of the company\u2019s \u201cmajor DEI push.\u201d Airlines and airplane manufacturers have been receiving tight scrutiny of their support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies after a window blew out of a Boeing 737-9 aircraft during an Alaskan Airlines flight, resulting in an emergency landing. Conservative commentators pointed to\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/01\/11\/business\/elon-musk-rips-boeing-they-prioritized-dei-over-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Boeing\u2019s recent change<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0from focusing on incentives for safety and quality to focusing on DEI and climate targets. Conservatives have also alleged that airlines are hiring less qualified candidates simply to \u201ccheck a few boxes.\u201d \u201cI would be terrified if I got onto a plane, and I saw a woman flying the plane, and I know that we have the United CEO saying that he just wants to fulfill a quota. He just wants there to be more women and wants there to be more Black people and he&#8217;s not concerned at first with qualifications. That is something that should alarm all of us guys,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/candace-owens-terrified-women-pilots-1864495\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">said<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0conservative commentator Candace Owens on her show. Quoting Benjamin Franklin, Smith stated on\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fox News<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0that the inability to express opinions leads to ignorance and tyranny. \u201cI don&#8217;t know how we got here as a nation to where somebody can&#8217;t bring up their own questions about morality without losing their job. But that&#8217;s where we&#8217;re at.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two former airline employees are suing Alaska Airlines and their union, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), after allegedly being fired for their religious beliefs and pushback against the company\u2019s support of the Equality Act. The trouble began in 2021 when flight attendants Marli Brown and Laci Smith received a notice on their online company&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":20607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Airline Employees State They Were Fired For Their Religious Beliefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two former airline employees are suing Alaska Airlines and their union, after allegedly being fired for their religious beliefs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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