Suit was filed last week in a Missouri federal district court challenging a Directive issued last month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development interpreting the Fair Housing Act as barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The 70-page complaint (full text) in The School of the Ozarks, Inc. v. Biden, (WD MO, filed 4/15/2021), in addition to claiming a number of procedural problems with the adoption of the Directive, alleges that it violates the 1st Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The complaint alleges in part:
1. This action challenges a federal agency directive that requires private religious colleges to place biological males into female dormitories and to assign them as females’ roommates.
39. The Christian faith is an integral part of life at College of the Ozarks....
57. The College teaches human sexuality is a gift from God....
58. The College teaches that sex as determined at birth is a person’s God-given, objective gender, whether or not it differs from their internal sense of “gender identity,” and it bases this teaching on such Biblical passages as Genesis 1:27, Leviticus 18:22, Matthew 19:4, Romans 1:26–27, and 1 Corinthians 6:9–10.
ADF issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.
