TEXAS: Social Security Administration Judge Sues Rather Than Watch Mandatory LGBT Diversity Video

The Washington Post reports:

Citing his First Amendment rights and religious protections under the Civil Rights Act, a Social Security Administration judge in Texas who refused to watch an LGBT diversity training video is suing his superiors to avoid being fired, saying he was subject to a “religiously hostile work environment.”

Judge Gary Suttles said in a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Texas that the Social Security Administration, or SSA, should be barred from taking any disciplinary action against him at least until his religious discrimination claims are heard by a federal employment panel.

“The agency has wholly failed to work in good faith to reasonably accommodate Judge Suttles’ sincerely held religious belief against watching” the video, the complaint says.

The agency violated his rights, the complaint says, “by discriminating against him on the basis of his religion, creating a religiously hostile work environment,” and by “retaliating against him for his protected activity of seeking a religious accommodation.”

RELATED: In September 2016, a Social Security Administration staffer in Illinois also sued rather than watch the video. That case remains pending.