L.A. Lifeguard Says He Was Punished for Not Flying Pride Flag

It’s June, the month LGBTQ loonies have aggressively and egregiously claimed as their own, but even before the Pride flags unfurled last year, a California fire department lifeguard found himself in trouble for saying the flag did not accord with his Christian beliefs.

Last year, the LA County Board of Supervisors made it mandatory for county facilities to fly the Progress Pride flag throughout the month of June. The Los Angeles County Fire Department originally gave Capt. Jeffrey Little his requested religious exemption from personally putting up the flag, Fox News noted, but the exemption was later revoked and he was told his religious beliefs “do not matter”. Little later lost his investigation unit position and had to use vacation time to avoid being forced to put up the flag. This year, his religious exemption requests were simply ignored. Now he’s suing.

Originally, Little’s religious exemption request was granted the same day. When Little, a Fire Department veteran of 22 years, came to work a couple of days later, however, Fox noted that a supervisor had left no fewer than three Pride flags at his station. Not only that, there was an order for lifeguards to fly the flags.

Fox cited the suit to explain that Little took down the Pride flags and contacted human resources, only to find out his exemption was now denied. The supervising officer later told Little he had to put up the woke flag. When Little again brought up his Christian beliefs, he was told those beliefs “do not matter”. The chief put up the flag and insisted it had to fly for all of June.

“I felt like I was being targeted or entrapped by [Section] Chief [Arthur] Lester and my religious beliefs were not being taken seriously,” Little wrote in a complaint included in the lawsuit. “He did not notify me of this change and gave me no heads up that the flags would be flying.”

Afterward, Little was removed from his role on a background investigation unit despite his "exemplary record" and there "never being any concerns with his work or reputation," his lawyer, Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society, told Fox News Digital…

Little also allegedly received a death threat against him and his daughters at his family home, according to the suit. For the remainder of the month, Little was forced to use up his vacation time to avoid flying the Pride flag at his work station, Jonna said… In addition to the fire department, Little's suit names three lifeguard chiefs as plaintiffs and claims religious discrimination, retaliation and harassment and violations of the First Amendment.

Jonna argued, “[Little] courageously stood on principle and asked for a simple religious accommodation, which he is rightfully and legally due, only to be first denied, then threatened, harassed, discriminated and retaliated against for his widely shared Christian religious beliefs.”

As noted above, Little’s requests this year have been ignored. Apparently there’s no recognition of constitutionally protected religious freedom in Los Angeles. Jonna told Fox, “There are situations where accommodating a religious observer would be difficult. This is not one of them. This is the most straightforward possible accommodation request. And yet they're just ignoring him.”

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Little’s suit is seeking “damages and injunctive relief—a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction—to protect Captain Little’s religious rights during Pride Month.” Unfortunately, Christians’ rights are no longer protected in much of America, especially in Commie California. Everyone must bow to the biological and moral insanity of LGBTQ ideology.

G.K. Chesterton predicted many years ago, “We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.” We might well add, “We are in a world where a man may be fired for stating that a man is a man and a woman is a woman.”