{"id":32579,"date":"2026-08-11T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=32579"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:20:11","slug":"after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","title":{"rendered":"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Joseph Hendrickson \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Michigan hospital has agreed to pay $410K to a physician assistant after she was fired for refusing to participate in transgender surgeries. Christian Valerie Kloosterman had worked for University of Michigan Health-West (UMHW) for\u00a017 years with positive performance reviews during that time when she was faced with a conundrum in 2021. After a mandatory so-called \u201cdiversity and inclusion\u201d training, Kloosterman requested a religious exemption from affirming statements about gender that violated her Christian beliefs, referring patients for transgender surgeries, as well as using preferred pronouns that did not align with a patient\u2019s biological sex. \u201cAll I wanted to do was provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my\u00a0Christian beliefs,\u201d Kloosterman said in a statement<\/a>. However, the hospital refused to offer her an accommodation. During meetings with personnel, Kloosterman reported being called \u201cevil\u201d and told to keep her religious convictions at home. Within three weeks of her request, Kloosterman was fired.<\/p>\n

Represented by First Liberty Institute, Kloosterman filed a religious discrimination charge through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and requested to be reinstated. When the hospital refused, First Liberty filed a federal lawsuit in 2022. By August 2025, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Kloosterman\u2019s favor. After that ruling, UMHW agreed to a settlement. In addition to awarding Kloosterman with $410,000 for damages and fees. As part of the settlement, UMHW also agreed to create a new policy for religious accommodations without retribution to those who request it.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Decision<\/em>, Kloosterman said she hoped the outcome would encourage other believers to stand firm in their faith. \u201cMy prayer is that believers would stand \ufb01rm, that they would be light and salt wherever God has placed them, that they would see who they\u2019re working with and working for as people created in the image of God. For my friends and colleagues still working at UMHW, I\u2019m glad that now they can receive a religious accommodation because of the policy change we achieved,\u201d she said<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s all I was asking for in the \ufb01rst place, before I was \ufb01red.\u201d Kayla Toney, legal counsel for First Liberty Institute, said the settlement set an important precedent for Christians in similar workplace situations. \u201cUMHW\u2019s new policy ensures that people of faith won\u2019t be forced to participate in gender transition treatments that violate their beliefs, forced to affirm statements in mandatory trainings that go against their consciences, or forced to use pronouns that go against their consciences,\u201d she said. \u201cThe law requires employers to accommodate people of faith in the healthcare setting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Michigan hospital has agreed to pay $410K to a physician assistant after she was fired for refusing to participate in transgender surgeries. Christian Valerie Kloosterman had worked for University of Michigan Health-West (UMHW) for\u00a017 years with positive performance reviews during that time when she was faced with a conundrum in 2021. After a mandatory…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":32582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAfter Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Michigan hospital will pay $410K to a Christian physician assistant fired after seeking religious accommodations over transgender policies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Michigan hospital will pay $410K to a Christian physician assistant fired after seeking religious accommodations over transgender policies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T19:20:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/08\/Michigan-Health_credit-Joseph-Hendrickson-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement","description":"A Michigan hospital will pay $410K to a Christian physician assistant fired after seeking religious accommodations over transgender policies.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement","og_description":"A Michigan hospital will pay $410K to a Christian physician assistant fired after seeking religious accommodations over transgender policies.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2026-08-11T19:20:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/08\/Michigan-Health_credit-Joseph-Hendrickson-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement","name":"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/08\/Michigan-Health_credit-Joseph-Hendrickson-Shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-11T19:20:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-11T19:20:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"A Michigan hospital will pay $410K to a Christian physician assistant fired after seeking religious accommodations over transgender policies.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/08\/Michigan-Health_credit-Joseph-Hendrickson-Shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/08\/Michigan-Health_credit-Joseph-Hendrickson-Shutterstock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Joseph Hendrickson \/ Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/08\/after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-participant-in-gender-surgeries-michigan-physician-assistant-wins-410k-settlement#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"After Being Fired For Refusing to Participant in Gender Surgeries, Michigan Physician Assistant Wins $410K Settlement"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32588,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32579\/revisions\/32588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}