A city honoring its police officers and firefighters with the patron saints those men and women have invoked for generations is not establishing a religion.
Page A7From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 1 September 2026
Christian employers can discriminate against trans employees, but a town can't build Christian statues because they're Christian.
As it ran on the front
Just a second, let me find the page — I had this written down here somewhere... ah, here it is. Two clippings, side by side, both from the same week. One says a Christian employer can discriminate against a trans employee, on account of religious belief. The other says a Massachusetts town can't put up statues of Christian heroes, on account of — and this is the part I keep circling back to — 'because they're Christian.'
Same word. Both clippings. 'Christian' opens the first door and closes the second one.…
…(cont) I don't know much, I'm not a lawyer, I just read the two pages a lot of times. But I got curious, so I did a little thing at the kitchen table — took two keys, same brand, same cut, off the same ring. One key opens the front door. I filed down the other one, just slightly, same look, same word stamped on the head of it, doesn't open anything. Same word on both keys. Only one of them turns the lock.
Now, the clipping about the employer — that's a private business, hiring and firing under a religious exemption. The clipping about the statues — that's a town government, a public body, putting up a monument. Different kinds of doors, I'll grant you that. But the word doing the opening and the word doing the closing is the same word, filed under 'Christian' both times, same week, same section of the paper.
So here's my question, and I want to be clear, I'm not saying I know the answer, I just wrote down what's on the two pages: when the word 'Christian' shows up next to 'employer,' the door opens. When the same word shows up next to 'statue,' the door closes. Both of those are documented, both happened the same week.
Oh — one more thing, before you go. Sorry, I always do this. If the word does the opening in one filing and the closing in the other, which page decides which one it does that week?
“Same word, 'Christian,' opens the door for one business and slams it on one town. Once you see that pattern, you stop calling it religious liberty and start calling it a permission slip that only works one direction. Watch who gets to file the paperwork and who gets told to take the statue down.”
“Religious liberty protects an employer's sincerely held beliefs, full stop — and the Massachusetts statue ruling, well, that's a separate legal question about government establishment... which, come to think of it, is also about religion. So I guess it's the same question. I'll circle back on that one.”
The receipts
A settlement with the Christian Employers Alliance blocks the EEOC from ever investigating the group’s members for gender identity discrimination. The post Christian Employers Can Now Discriminate Against Trans People appeared first on The Intercept .
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.