Daniel Snyder lost his position as a metalworker after expressing his disapproval of his employer’s decision to utilize a rainbow symbol to endorse gay pride month. Snyder, previously employed by the renowned aluminum manufacturing company Arconic, has filed a lawsuit against his ex-employer alleging religious discrimination.
“Because of his Christian beliefs, Mr. Snyder respects all people regardless of their sexuality, and he previously worked alongside a transgender individual at Arconic without any issues,” said Thomas More Society attorney Michael McHale. “His sincerely held Christian beliefs also include the reasonable understanding that the Bible teaches marriage is only between one man and one woman.”
The appeal filed by Snyder is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday.
“He also sincerely believes that the Bible shows that the rainbow is a sign of the covenant between God and man, and thus that it is sacrilegious to use the rainbow to promote relationships and ideologies that violate God’s law,” the attorney said.
Arconic informed Snyder that his remark had upset a colleague, leading to the suspension and subsequent termination of the 62-year-old employee, reportedly due to a breach of the company’s “Diversity Policy.”
The Biden Administration is seeking to enshrine in federal law that big companies’ ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) policies trump the religious liberty rights of individual American workers,” said Thomas More attorney Peter Breen. “Massive companies like Arconic are using their DEI policies to threaten people of faith merely because they express their sincere religious beliefs—here, the Biden Administration has come into court to defend religious discrimination committed by a large powerful company against a single Christian union worker.”
“Ironically, Arconic is the one refusing to respect the diversity of Mr. Snyder’s beliefs or to acknowledge that he was offended by the company’s choice to co-opt the rainbow to promote ideologies that conflict with the Biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality,” McHale said. “And Arconic’s outright refusal to acknowledge that he was just trying to answer a company survey, rather than impose his views on others, was illegal.”
