California Suspends Meal Funding at Christian Preschool Over Stance on Gender, Sexuality

An elementary school classroom in Orange, Calif., on March 11, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A San Diego County Christian preschool is suing the state of California for pulling the plug on the school’s state meal funding, saying its traditional stance on gender and sexuality violated a new state law.

The Church of Compassion’s Dayspring Christian Learning Center—a preschool and day care facility in El Cajon, Calif., that serves nearly 90 students—filed a lawsuit against the state on March 15 for “deprivation of the free exercise of religion” and “deprivation of free speech,” as well as alleged “hostility against religion.”

The school received a letter from the state’s Social Services Department last October, denying its application for continued meal funding, saying the school’s stance on marriage and sexuality violated a new state law.

Dayspring’s 21-page employee handbook requires staff to “model Christlike behavior” and prohibits “living with someone with whom you are not married, homosexuality, lesbianism ... or any behavior that is deemed not to conform to the Bible.”

According to the department’s letter, “these actions show intent to discriminate against individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity in violation of state law.”

If the school wanted to continue with the meal funding program, department officials said, it would have to “cease requiring individuals to sign or abide by the staff handbook, or any other employment policy, which specifically disallows lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyles as a condition of employment.”

“Our preschool serves all families, but we do not want the government to force us to replace our core values and the essential beliefs of our Christian faith or make us agree to adopt and express the state’s contrary beliefs,” Dayspring Principal Kelly Wade said in a March 16 press release.

‘Transgressing Constitutional Boundaries’: Attorney

Dean Broyles, an attorney with the National Center for Law & Policy who is representing the school along with law firm Advocates for Faith and Freedom, told The Epoch Times that the social services department revised its civil rights statement to expand the definition of “sex” to include gender identity and sexual orientation last April.

“Now, the state is trying to enforce its beliefs about gender and sexuality onto the church,” he said. “It’s transgressing constitutional boundaries and trying to tell the church what to think and believe.”

Broyles also said that several LGBT families have children who attend Dayspring, and that those families are “happy” with the school and upset by the state’s decision to pull funding.

Additionally, the attorney said that the school has “been able to scrape funds together” to meet students’ meal needs for the past few months.

“But it’s not without hardship,” he said.

The school is currently preparing a preliminary injunction motion to restore the school’s meal funding while the lawsuit is pending, according to Broyles. A hearing for the case has not been scheduled.

A spokesperson for the state’s Child and Adult Care Food Programs Branch, as well as a spokesperson for the Civil Rights Unit at the state’s social services department, was not immediately available for comment.