City of Jacksonville Settles with Catholic Bookstore That Challenged Law Requiring Use of Preferred Pronouns

The city of Jacksonville in Florida has agreed to treat a local Catholic bookstore as a religious organization, allowing the store’s owner to implement a policy around gender identity without having to worry about running afoul of the city’s anti-discrimination laws.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit by Queen of Angels Catholic Store owner Christie DeTrude and her lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom, who alleged that the city’s public-accommodations law violated DeTrude’s First Amendment speech and religious rights.

National Review wrote about DeTrude’s legal fight in March.

“We’re excited about it, we’re not surprised because it’s America and everybody deserves free speech,” DeTrude said of the settlement, which has not yet been approved in court. “We’re excited that we don’t have to be concerned that the city might come after us, try to fine us, for just speaking the truth.”

DeTrude, a devout Catholic, refuses to identify people by pronouns at odds with their biological sex — a belief that she says is informed by her faith. Amid the flaring public debates around gender identity, DeTrude wanted to craft and publish a store policy in line with her beliefs, but worried that it would run afoul of Jacksonville’s public-accommodations law.

A portion of the city’s human-rights ordinance says that it is unlawful to “publish, circulate, issue, display, post or mail” any communication to the effect that “accommodations, services, goods, advantages, facilities are denied to a person for that the patronage of such person is unwelcome, objectional or unacceptable.”

While DeTrude insists her store welcomes anyone, regardless of their faith or lack thereof, she worried the city could target her if she published a gender-identity policy.

The city moved to have the lawsuit dismissed. “Their argument was there wasn’t enough of a credible threat that the bookstore would be prosecuted under this particular law,” said Hal Frampton, a senior ADF attorney.

The court eventually determined that DeTrude had standing. The judge directed her team to refile the lawsuit with a focus on a religious exemption from the city’s law. While the city had previously declined to exempt Queen of Angels from the law, their lawyers “became receptive” to the idea after the court’s order, Frampton said.

As part of the settlement, the city has agreed that Queen of Angels Catholic Store is an exempt religious organization under city law and is free to operate according to its Catholic beliefs.

The city’s communications department did not respond to an email from National Review seeking comment on the settlement agreement.

“Typically, government entities really resist applying religious exemptions to for-profit businesses like Queen of Angels bookstore because they’re not traditional ministries, they’re for-profit businesses. They’re just for-profit businesses that have a distinct religious focus,” Frampton said.

Frampton called the settlement a “win for free speech” and a “win for religious liberty.”

“It’s particularly heartening for us to see a government entity agree that a for-profit business like Queen of Angels Catholic bookstore can be a religious organization, that is exempt from some of these kinds of laws that trample on religious liberty,” he said.

“That hopefully will help Christian businessowners in other places, certainly throughout Jacksonville, but hopefully in other places, to encourage people to recognize that you don’t have to be a church to be a religious organization,” he added.

While DeTrude is working on finalizing a gender-identity policy, Frampton is recommending that she wait until the settlement is approved by the court before implementing it.

DeTrude bought Queen of Angels Catholic Store in 2017. The staff have prayers throughout the day and welcome customers to join them. They also keep a glass bowl on the front counter where customers can make prayer requests.

DeTrude said that since filing the lawsuit she’s received support from all over the country.

“I mean, even the people who disagree with us on the church’s position still believe we have the right to free speech, that we should be able to say it even if they disagree with what we’re saying,” she said. “We’ve had local customers come in who have never been here before, they just want to support us because they belive in free speech.”