Catholic Bookstore Owner Challenges Jacksonville Law Requiring Use of Preferred Pronouns

Christie DeTrude loves being Catholic.

She loves talking about her faith, and she goes to Mass almost every day.

In years past, DeTrude spent so much time at Queen of Angels, a Catholic bookstore near her home in Jacksonville, Fla., that in 2017 she decided to buy the store.

“It’s a good place to spend my days talking about being Catholic,” she told National Review.

At least twice a day, Queen of Angels staff stop for prayer, and welcome customers to join them. They keep a glass bowl on the front counter where customers can make prayer requests.

While DeTrude only sells books and items that are consistent with her Catholic faith, she insists her store is open to anyone, regardless of their faith or lack thereof. “When it says ‘Catholic Store’ out front, that’s who we are. It’s not who we expect you to be,” DeTrude said.

But DeTrude has grown concerned recently about the flaring public debates around gender identity. Her belief, which is informed by her faith, is that biological sex is immutable, and that both men and women are created in God’s image and are worthy of dignity and respect.

DeTrude refuses to identify people by pronouns at odds with their biological sex, and she would like to make that official store policy and post it on her website, blog, and social-media accounts. But she believes doing so would run afoul of Jacksonville’s public-accommodations law.

Last month, DeTrude and lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom sued the city, alleging that its public-accommodations law violates DeTrude’s First Amendment speech and religious rights.

Hal Frampton, an ADF lawyer, said that before filing the lawsuit, they sent a letter to the city asking that it not enforce the law against DeTrude, but “they declined.”

A city spokesperson declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing litigation.

“We’ve got an unjust law that puts Christie in the crosshairs every day that she unlocks the door of her store and invites the public in,” Frampton said. “Someone can come through the door and make a request that she can’t honor, and that forces her, in that split second, to decide between her faith and violating the law.”

It was in 2017, the year DeTrude bought Queen of Angels, that Jacksonville leaders passed a human-rights ordinance that included gender identity and sexual orientation in the city’s anti-discrimination laws. The portion of the Jacksonville public-accommodations law that ADF lawyers point to as problematic says that it is unlawful to “publish, circulate, issue, display, post or mail and communication, notice or advertisement to the effect that accommodations, services, goods, advantages, facilities are denied to a person or that the patronage of such person is unwelcome, objectionable, or unacceptable.”

ADF believes that portion of the law would make DeTrude’s proposed pronoun policy, and the publishing of the policy, illegal. According to the lawsuit, “Queen of Angels must instead profess an ideological view it opposes, contradict the message espoused in the very books it sells, and avoid explaining its Catholic beliefs about human sexuality in store and online. In effect, the law requires this Catholic bookstore to stop being fully Catholic.”

Violating the law could lead to investigations, fines, and damages, the lawsuit states.

DeTrude’s proposed pronoun policy reads, in part, “As a Catholic bookstore, Queen of Angels seeks to follow Catholic beliefs when interacting with customers and the public. It is therefore the official policy of Queen of Angels Catholic Bookstore that owners, and employed staff, while working for the bookstore, may only use pronouns and titles that align with the biologically originating sex of the person being referenced, whether the individual is a co-worker, customer, or any member of the public visiting or interacting with the bookstore.”

“This policy is important to maintain the integrity of and alignment with Catholic beliefs of Queen of Angels’ Catholic Bookstore and to promote these beliefs in the spirit of evangelization,” the proposed policy also says.

While DeTrude hasn’t published her proposed pronoun policy yet, and the city has not taken any action against her, she said some nearby businesses have pushed her to address people by their preferred pronouns. She said she’s had conversations about why she won’t.

“It’s been a peaceful conversation,” DeTrude said. “I want to be able to have those conversations without fear of being punished by the government.”

The Queen of Angels blog, which is linked to its website, generally focuses on discussions about Catholic holy days, suggested Christian readings, and educational posts about Catholic figures. But DeTrude is also interested in writing about other aspects of sexual activity, and God’s design for marriage, which she believes should be between one man and one woman.

“It’s very easy to imagine how any of that kind of stuff could start to run afoul of this law,” Frampton said.

Jacksonville’s law is similar to public-accommodations and human-rights laws in several states and cities across the country. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also published guidance compelling employers to use their employees’ preferred pronouns.

“Jacksonville’s law is not unique,” Frampton said. “We have seen these gender-identity discrimination laws pop up all over the country in cities, counties, and even states with these broad provisions that prohibit posting or circulating or publishing anything that could make someone feel, ‘unwelcome,’ which is incredibly broad and vague, and squelches a wide variety of appropriate and protected speech.”

Frampton said they are hoping to start establishing precedent that that kind of broad and vague prohibition is unconstitutional. Their first hearing in the Jacksonville case is scheduled for April.

DeTrude said her lawsuit is about more than just her Christian store.

“We want free speech for everyone,” she said, “because without free speech, we don’t have the freedom to practice our religion.”