Jocelyn Boden was the manager of the store for three-and-a-half years. While in that position, Boden hired an employee who identifies as transgender, but according to Boden's sincerely held religious beliefs, Boden could not refer to someone by a pronoun that does not correspond with his or her biological sex.
She was subsequently fired in May.
"Jocelyn does not believe that someone can change their gender and she told Bath & Body Works that when they opened an investigation when they had heard that Jocelyn had allegedly misgendered this employee," says attorney Cliff Martin of First Liberty Institute, the law firm representing Boden. "We don't believe that Joceyln should have to choose between her faith and her job and so we're asking the Trump administration to look in to whether the civil rights act was violated."
To be specific, the request was made with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Boden and the employee worked together only one day before a complaint against her was filed with the company’s human resources department.
Martin says the commission can take as long as it needs to investigate whether the law was violated. In the meantime, Martin says Boden was the inclusive person in this story.
"She hired this employee that identified as transgender and was perfectly willing to work with that employee and she even proposed an accommodation where she would refer to that employee only by name at all times so everyone could work together peaceably," says Martin.
First Liberty describes Boden as a long-established member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who often discussed her faith in the workplace.
"It was Bath & Body Works that had a knee-jerk response of just terminating her immediately without exploring whether these employees could work together and co-exist, so, we would say that Jocelyn is the inclusive one here and Bath & Body Works, though it holds itself as inclusive, actually is the one that terminated someone based on their faith."
