Women’s shelter can't be punished for denying access to men who identify as female, court rulesA federal court has given temporary protection to a faith-based women's shelter in Alaska against being punished for denying access to a man who identifies as transgender.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska issued a preliminary injunction last Friday for the Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center of Anchorage, also known as the Downtown Hope Center, preventing the city of Anchorage from enforcing anti-discrimination laws against the nonprofit organization.
District Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued the injunction, believing that while preventing “discrimination against protected classes is clearly an important public interest†the local rules “do not appear to apply to Hope Center’s homeless shelter.â€
“Therefore, enjoining the enforcement of those provisions against Hope Center’s homeless shelter will not significantly curtail the public interest,†Gleason said.
It isn't clear from this article whether the municipal ordinance in question was passed to target groups such as this homeless shelter, or was about to be used by the
Anchorage Equal Rights Commission - IMO, these "human or equal rights commissions" are basically kangaroo courts designed and staffed to bypass due process rights - to attack this homeless shelter.. Either way, the point of activists' actions like this was going to be is to drive Christians and Christian-run organization out of society, regardless of the harm to society.
Stepping back a little, one of the issues some homeless people have had in some shelters is that crime happens. Usually it's stuff being stolen, but sometimes it's more violent. This Alaska shelter has chosen to separate people with male reproductive plumbing from those with female reproductive plumbing. This reduces the risk of rape to near zero, one less thing for the women in that shelter to worry about.
BTW, the article (and thread) title seems to be misleading. If I understand the article correctly, this ruling enjoins the
Anchorage Equal Rights Commission from proceeding with the complaint until the court deals with the issues raised by the shelter. One possible outcome could be the court and then the AERC ruling against the shelter.