An evangelical Christian lifeguard stated that Los Angeles County officers have given him a “partial” concession in his quest to keep away from hoisting the Pleasure flag on the seashore this month.
In a Wednesday authorized submitting, attorneys for longtime county lifeguard Jeffrey Little stated their consumer was informed on Might 31, the day earlier than Pleasure Month started, that he would obtain a “partial spiritual lodging” and “wouldn’t be personally chargeable for elevating or decreasing” the flag.
However as a captain, Little will nonetheless need to ensure that his subordinates hoist the flag, a job requirement that his attorneys stated would “violate his honest spiritual beliefs.”
The change from the county fireplace division comes per week after Little sued in federal court docket, accusing his bosses of spiritual discrimination by making him work close to the Progress Pleasure flag final summer time and punishing him for taking three of the flags down. The county board of supervisors voted final yr to require that many authorities buildings — together with lifeguard services — fly the rainbow flag, which has further stripes representing folks of coloration and transgender and nonbinary folks, all through Pleasure month.
The order, Little argued within the lawsuit, was in “direct battle” together with his “conventional Christian beliefs concerning the ethical illicitness of same-sex exercise, the immutability of intercourse no matter gender identification, and the view that every one persons are kids of God no matter their pores and skin coloration.”
Final yr, some county lifeguard stations didn’t fly the Pleasure flags as a result of they didn’t have the precise flagpoles to carry each that flag and the U.S. flag, in line with the lawsuit. Little had requested final summer time to work at certainly one of these services, a request he stated was in the end denied. He requested once more for comparable lodging this yr however stated the county stonewalled the request, main him to sue the L.A. County Hearth Division in addition to three higher-ups within the division’s lifeguard division.
The hearth division, which doesn’t usually touch upon pending litigation, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Little has been a county lifeguard for greater than 22 years and made $210,000 final yr.
Final weekend, Little walked the seashore with a fireplace chief and confirmed that the seashores the place he could be spending most of his week — Nicholas Seashore, Level Dume Seashore and Malibu Seashore — didn’t have the precise flagpoles to fly the Pleasure flag, in line with the Wednesday declaration. Nonetheless, the headquarters at Zuma Seashore, the place he would work someday per week, did have the suitable flagpole.
Although Little wouldn’t be chargeable for flying the flag, the division’s threat administration employees informed him that he would nonetheless have to make sure that his subordinates hold the flag raised, the declaration stated. The hearth division’s coverage states that every one captains should be sure that the flag is flown all through June.
Little’s attorneys argued that he isn’t the one one who has taken situation with the necessities.
“My workplace is knowledgeable that the Hearth Division has obtained presumably lots of of extra spiritual lodging requests comparable in nature to Captain Little’s, and {that a} protest is perhaps deliberate,” wrote Paul Jonna, who’s representing Little and is particular counsel for the Thomas Extra Society, a conservative Catholic authorized group finest recognized for difficult abortion rights.
A county spokesperson stated Wednesday that this was inaccurate and that the county had obtained “lower than a dozen” requests for exemptions associated to the Pleasure flag countywide.
Nonetheless, the hearth division appeared braced for pushback this Pleasure month. On Might 30, Hearth Chief Anthony Marrone despatched a word to his employees outlining the protocols round elevating the flag.
“Final yr we confronted challenges with compliance at a number of Division services,” he stated. “I need to be intentional and clear that compliance will not be non-compulsory.”
