A Catholic bookstore owner is battling her Florida city in federal court over a local ordinance requiring the use of others’ “preferred pronouns” in her store, something she believes is a violation of her constitutional rights.
Christie DeTrude owns and operates the Queen of Angels Catholic Store in Jacksonville. She wants her business to serve as both a “living example” and an educational resource for people interested in the Catholic faith.
She uses the business to share her beliefs, not just in the store, but on its website, blog posts, and YouTube videos. Among other core values, she holds to the Catholic teaching that sex and gender are inseparable.
People convicted of “knowingly and willingly” violating the ordinance can be punished with a fine of up to $500 per occurrence.
In 2020, the Jacksonville City Council passed a revised version of what’s known as the city’s HRO (human rights ordinance) with a vote of 15–4.
Among other things, the new HRO wording requires businesses to provide a “welcoming” environment that affirms chosen gender identities of all current and prospective customers and employees.
The long-established HRO has sparked controversy in Jacksonville for more than a decade, since the first suggestion it would be modified to protect people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Over the years, some people involved in the debate have worried that adding that language could force some in the city to affirm things that go against their deeply held moral or religious convictions, such as requiring Christian wedding vendors to participate in same-sex unions.
In 2012, an attempt to address LGBT protections in the ordinance failed to pass. And that was an important issue among voters when city Councilman Al Ferraro was elected in 2015, he recalled. Many constituents didn’t want specific LGBT protections added to the ordinance.
A month later, another amendment of the HRO—one that was clarified and expanded from five pages to 21—was adopted by the city council. That version included language requiring businesses to follow the prescribed pronoun policy, among other things.
‘Preferred Pronouns’ Required
Being forced to use “preferred pronouns” of a customer, employee, or prospective employee would go against the religious beliefs and practices of workers in her store, if it would mean referring to a man as a woman, or vice versa, DeTrude’s lawyers told The Epoch Times.The lawsuit says that Queen of Angels Catholic Store “operates as a distinctly Catholic business,” and the city’s ordinance “threatens” the store’s “ability to speak and operate consistent with its Catholic beliefs.”
Further, the lawsuit alleges, “Jacksonville’s law uses aggressive enforcement mechanisms and penalties that burden Queen of Angels’ ability to speak and operate.”
Employees don’t mind respectfully addressing individuals with a first or last name or speaking in another way to avoid using pronouns, according to the lawsuit. And they stand ready to answer any questions relating to the Catholic Church’s views on human sexuality and biological sex.
So with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), she filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division, in February.
The lawsuit asserts that “Queen of Angels desires to formalize its pronoun policy and publish content explaining its policy and its Catholic beliefs.”
It goes on to say that, “Jacksonville’s law threatens Queen of Angels’ ability to speak and operate consistent with its Catholic beliefs.”
On May 15, ADF attorneys asked for a preliminary injunction. If issued by the court, it would block the city from fining the store for its position on pronouns while the case is being decided.
Queen of Angels Catholic Store has a history of serving customers who identify as transgender, DeTrude’s attorneys said. That creates a worry that clarifying the store’s pronoun policy could draw an attack from those seeking to challenge it, they said.
“As we stand right now, the bookstore is in fear it can’t publish the pronoun policy that it wants to publish,” ADF senior attorney Hal Frampton told The Epoch Times.
“It can’t say what it wants to say about non-biological pronouns in fear of government enforcement.”
And that, he said, is an infringement on freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Jacksonville City Council’s position, Frampton said, seems to be that it has no position. City attorneys are asking for the case to be thrown out because the store hasn’t faced any threats of enforcement, Frampton said.
The city’s Office of the General Counsel declined to comment.
“They are trying very hard not to take a position on whether the law regulates the bookstore’s speech or not,“ Frampton said. ”They won’t quite say one way or the other, which is a position that governments take sometimes.”
The Jacksonville City Council likely wants to make the bookstore wait for a complaint to be filed against it before the law’s constitutionality can be challenged, Frampton said.
Longtime Local Controversy
The newest version of the HRO features more specific definitions regarding “discrimination” in matters of employment, training, and public accommodations. It also outlines how complaints can be filed against business owners.DeTrude worries this might mean her business could be found in violation if it doesn’t seem to affirm a person’s self-appointed sex or gender identity, the lawsuit asserts.
And publishing a pronoun policy could be seen as a violation, if people complain they feel “unwelcome, objectionable, or unacceptable” in the store, because of their sex or gender identity, the lawsuit says.
Because Queen of Angels Catholic Store also offers merchandise online, the lawsuit argues that it, too, falls under the law’s definition of “places of public accommodation” and would be exposed to the possibility of facing punishment.
And complaints about the online store could trigger law enforcement action from beyond the boundaries of Jacksonville, Frampton said.
“Under Jacksonville’s law, nearly anyone on planet Earth can file a complaint against this bookstore,“ he said. ”Anyone who trolls their website and doesn’t like what they say about gender identity and pronouns can say they feel unwelcomed and therefore are entitled to start enforcement action on the bookstore. And that’s the problem.
“This is exactly why we have to be able to bring pre-enforcement challenges against unconstitutional laws because, left to their own devices, governments will often simply bob and weave and one day be up trying to enforce the law.”
‘I Don’t Think it will Stop at Pronouns’
Ferraro has been a councilman for eight years. He voted against the HRO updates both times they came before the council while he was in office.It went against his religious beliefs, he said. And he doesn’t believe government should foist such requirements on its people.
The legislation was pushed through by the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, which promoted it as a way to ensure “equal housing for all,” he said. Though well-intentioned, the ordinance has set a precedent that forces people to go against what they believe, Ferraro said.
“This would be the same thing as making Jews or Muslims eat a certain kind of pork,” Ferraro told The Epoch Times.
“I don’t think it will stop at pronouns. It won’t stop with the lawsuits.
“I don’t think elected officials really understand what they are doing. They don’t understand how damaging this is for our constitutional freedoms.
“If they do, they are derelict in what they’re doing because this kind of sets the stage on so many other things that can be pushed in a direction that goes against our liberties and freedoms.”
Frampton shared similar concerns.
“A lot of times, I don’t know if these local governments really understand what it is that they’re passing,” he said.
“They pass these ordinances under the guise of anti-discrimination. They think that all they’re doing is keeping a business from barring the doors to someone, when that’s not what they’re doing, at all.
“They also include these speech restrictions that end up trampling people’s constitutional rights to free speech.
“This is making a special exception for a group of people, and that is extremely dangerous when we start going down that road.”
Ferraro, who leaves office at the end of June after serving two terms, calls it “unfortunate” and a “national trend,” that threatens free speech.
Frampton’s motion in May asks the court for “protection” that would allow Queen of Angels Catholic Store to continue operating without fear of penalty while the law is contested.
“Free speech is for everyone,“ Frampton said. ”No business owner should be worried about what they can and cannot say on their business’s website, and we are hopeful that the courts will see it that way.”
Meanwhile, Ferraro said he holds faith in Jacksonville’s laws and its people.
“Our laws are clear. We cannot discriminate, period, anyhow. No matter what.
“We are a very good city that recognizes people’s rights. Just because we may not believe or agree with something, I don’t think that we have the problem that they are making this out to be.”
He doesn’t believe his city’s people want to hurt others “just because they’re transgender or gay,” he said. “I don’t see that.
“I see when people are pushed against the wall, where they are forcing us to accept something we don’t believe or agree on. I think that’s when you run into the problem.”
