Provers giving you a frontrow seat to democracy. Coming up next, discussion on religious and civil Liberty Court cases, the center for conservative women is the host of this event. Good afternoon, welcome for coming. Im michelle, president of the president center for conservative women. You know, this year is the 30th anniversary of the center, we have been preparing and promoting women to become conservatives in the country for three decades and we do this in events across the u. S. In Santa Barbara we will have many young women come here from some of the best conservative women leader in the country. We have full semester paid internships, other campus programs, social media blogs and lunches like this. This monthly launched began 23 years ago bringing women from dc, virginia, maryland, sometimes further to hear america best womengi leaders discuss key issues. Today im pleased to introduce todays speaker christiania keefer who will be discussing Alliance Defending freedom has spearheaded the fight for efreligious liberty, free speec, the sanctity of life, marriage, family and parental rights and has won many u. S. Supreme court cases including the overturn of roe v. Wade and burro v hobby lobby. Joining the staff in 2012. Shes now a key member of the adf center for conscious initiative. Christiania worked to defend the constitutionally protected freedom of churches, religious schools and Christian Ministries to exercise their faith without government interference. She has worked on many, many groundbreaking cases to protect the rights of women and girls to fair athletic competition. She also works to protect the rights of women of people of faith to foster and provide loving homes for children in need. Shes had multiple appearances on leading Networks Like fox news and news max and regularly comments in radio and print media as an adf commentator. Christiania admit today the state bar of california, district of colombia, u. S. Supreme court and numerous federal and appellate courts. She earned her juris doctor in 2010 from frees neglect california and graduated first in her class. Shes been married for a year and a half. Shes pregnant with her first child, due in the spring. Shes been in dc for about 8 years new and shes heavily involved especially in womens sports issues. Following todays talk and some questions and answers, i hope you join for some lunch. Please join me now in welcoming christiania keeper. [applause] all right, well, it is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. Im going to have this over have this over here, but again thank you so much for having me and spending time with us today. Its my pleasure to talk you this afternoon about religious liberty cases and especially a number of cases that intersect at the point of gender identity and becoming conflict across today and aiming but before we get started there, religious liberty is our first freedom and its for good reason, its the foundation on which a thriving Pluralistic Society and all other Civil Liberties rest. Religious freedom is more than just freedom within confines of your own home or within the f walls of house of worship, freedom to live and work consistently with your faith and religious convictions. No one should have to go against their core beliefs in order to go to school, to get a job and to participate in the public square. And beauty of religious freedom its not just an american right, its the an inherent human right that we all have by virtue of being created in the image of god and designed to be in relationship with him. But in an increasingly post christian and antichristian culture, some have questioned by the religious family has any value at all. They dont realize that religious liberty is that social buffer that allows us to live peacefully and harmoniously with those with whom we disagree rather than government imposed orthodoxy. It allows us to say i disagree with your beliefs but i respect your rights to hold them even if i think theyre crazy and i logical and make no sense at all. So if youre thinking about how do we how do we talk about does any religious freedom in our generation and in our culture, i like to think about five quick benefits of religious people before we dig into the cases. Number one religious freedom ensures that everyone has the meaning of exploring life, where we come from, what our purpose is and how we should live in as a result of answers that we find. It allows us to order our lives according to answers that we find. People of think, express act upon our deepest convictions. Number two, did you know religious freedom contributes to Economic Growth and healthy society. According to 2016 study religion and religious organizations contribute 1. 2 trillion, trillion with a t the dollars annually to the american economy. Thats more by the way than annual revenues of apple, amazon and google combined. Estimated 350,000 religious congregations across the United States that operate things like schools, pregnancy centers, soup kitchens, drug addiction programs, homeless shelters and adoption agencies and they serve over 10 million americans every year and typically they do so in a way that has a more Lasting Impact and its cheaper than if the government were to do it itself. Number 3, religious freedom forest thers political stability and strengths national security. History and frankly even Current Events shows that countries that protect, less poverty, less violence and more political stability than those countries that do not. Number 4, religious freedom empowers women and minority groups. Religious liberty increases the status of women and protections of vulnerable minorities that might otherwise be oppressed and silenced. Frankly, i think thats rather readily illustrated by afghanistan before the taliban and after the taliban. Look at the status of women and their Current Situation now. And number 5, religious liberty undergirds our other Civil Liberties, it is the foundation tyupon which our other Civil Liberties rest and in many respects prerequisite for them. Countries that protect religious freedom have more democratic and more robust freedoms of speech, freedoms of press and i personally witnessed this when i traveled to Southeast Asian country for ten years ago to i work with a prosecuted church and was in10 a country that hado religious freedom and no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, the women were oppressed and it really helped me to visualize the slowdown effects of not protecting that first freedom. Religious freedom has been called canary in a coal mine, so when it is under attack in a civil society, you know other freedoms are under attack and at risk as well. Religious freedom is incredibly valuable and it is worth defending. For many of us we are busy with our daytoday lives, we are doing our things, we are not really thinking about the threats to religious liberty unless they become personal to us, unless we encounter in our daytoday lives. But youll recognize as the government passes more laws, it intrudes into more areas that used to be governed by private decisions and more opportunities for conflict between a persons religious freedom and government mandates and government orthodoxy and frankly that is readily illustrated in the area of gender identity today. Gender identity is a new phenomena in the gran scheme of things. It has had remarkably fast impact on the current legal landscape across america. So my goal today to highlight for you a few of the lawsuits that Alliance Defending freedom is i currently litigating in the area of religious liberty at the intersection of gender identity and talk to you a little bit about theus categories of threas and pressure points that we are currently seeing to our freedoms. So pressuree point number one, maybe we will stick this up here. That might be a little easier. Pressure point number one, right of people for faith and foster and adopt children. There are few religious practices that have distinguished christians for quench rice like the practice of caring for children in need but the ability of christians across america to actually forest the other and adopt children who need ari forever home is being questioned simply because they hold to a biblical sexual ethic. Jessica beats is a widow and mother of five children in eastern oregon. She tragically lost her husband back in 2017 after a headon collision and it really was her faith in god and her local Church Community that helped her to weather that tragedy and be able to move forward. One day she was in the car driving to work, she was an ultra round technician and she heard radio caring for orphans, care for widows and orphans and she thought, thats something that i need to do. I feel like the lord is calling me to do this. She began the process of adoption in the state of oregonor and she was specifically looking for a sibling pair, 9 or younger, younger than biological child and found out that the state of oregon disapproved of her beliefs regarding marriage and human sexuality because according to state rules, anyone seeking to adopt must accept and support the Sexual Orientation and gender identity of any child the state might place in their home. Well, that according to the state of oregon meant the parents must agree to use a childs pronouns, whatever they choose, take a child to pride parades, display lgbt flags and paraphernalia within their homes and facilitate access to pharmaceutical interventions and crosssex hormones, interventions that could sterilize a young child and couldnt take to religious services, services at her churning if it didnt mean unpeg affirmation of whatever the childs preferences might be. Well, jessica, of course, as an incredible capable and loving mother of five children, she would be glad to care for any child and accept any child for who they are but she wasnt going to be able to say anything that would conflict with her religious convictions about maker and human salty. Keep an mind, she was open to keeping an infant, regardless, the state of oregon denied the application because of her rereligious views. The state of oregon applied litmus test and deemed jessica categorically unfit to take care of the thousands of children in the foster system. Oregon readily accommodate others of religions and backgrounds and tries to pair for families that a good fit for each other and isnt going to force devout jew to have muslim things in their home. Jessica, though, was not considered capable of qualified to care for a child even from her own religious congregation. So has filed lawsuit on jessicas behalf to protect freedom to adopt and Adoption Services on the same basis as everyone else and frankly to ensure that children in need have access to an incredibly loving home like jessica who wants and desires to provide for them. That case is still in the very early stages but i want you to be acare these are increasingly common across the u. S. Unfortunately so. Category number 2, people of faith to participate in the public scare including businesses. All of you are familiar with jack philips, Supreme Court victory back in 2018. For those less familiar. Jack declined a samesex wedding cake request. He was asked to create a custom design cake for samesex ceremony and he explain today the couple, i would be happy to bake you a custom birthday cake or anything else just cant do a wedding cake. I will sell you anything else in my shop but i cant do custom design because of the message. Nevertheless, the couple filed a complaint in the state of colorado prosecuted jack all the way up to the United StatesSupreme Court for living consistently with his faith and they called his beliefs despicable and thought they were analogous to the nazis. Thankfully the United StatesSupreme Court recognized the religious hostility of the state of colorado towards jack and people like him and recognized that that violated the First Amendment toow guaranty a free exercise of religion and ruled in his favor with a resounding win but unfortunately the attacks on jack have not stopped. Before he even won his first Supreme Court case, an attorney called jacks job and asked for a custom cake. The attorney specified that he wanted a case that was blue on the inside and pink on the inside and specifically explained that that wasas to celebrate the attorneys gender transition from male to female. Well, jack respectfully declined that request because he couldnt in good correspondence create that art work celebrating that message. And that attorney took legal action against him not once but twice in the intervening time frame. This was a targeted attack on Jack Phillips. The latest lawsuit that he is currently facing seeks monetary damages and attorneys fees from jack that if successful will bring about financial ruin for jack and his family. But thats completely absurd, it is mindboggling to think, jack serves everyone and welcomes everyone and gladly serve people from all walks of life but as a creative professional and this is typical across creative professions he cannot just express every single message that is requested of him. He cant celebrate every event hes asked to. For example, jack does not create cakes celebrating halloween or violence or antimean messages or divorce or cakes that den gait other people. He wouldnt create any of those things and it is his right as creative professional to make those choices, to make those decisions. He does not deserve cruelty of over decade of litigation simply for trying to peacefully run his business in a way thats consistent with his faith. No american should endure that type of bullying or be vanished from the marketplace because of what they believe. Well, in january of this year, the Colorado Court of appeals ruled against jack and said that was tom art work is not presented speech but the colorado Supreme Court just this past week has geed to hear his case and this case ought to be ready dealt with in light of the Supreme Courts recent decision and fabulous win in 303 creative so we will see, but i also just want you to be aware, there are numerous creative professional cases yet pending that still need to be resolved. Did you know that you could be kicked out of a Farmers Market for what you believe . Random, right . Thats exactly what happened to steve tennis pictured here on the slide. Steve owns a popular Family Business called Country Mill Farms. He and his wife are devout catholics, military veterans and for years they brought their produce 22 miless away to the east lansing michigan farmersil market where they are a rather popular vender. The family was asked via facebook whether or not they would use Country Mill Farms f which is their personal family farm to host samesex wedding and the family respectfully responding, look, we will serve everyone, we welcome everyone to our farm to pick apple the in apple picking season, everyone, but we would have to decline to host samesex wedding because that conflicts with our deeply religious conflictions, it would be telling a lie about what marriage is. The city exiled them from the Farmers Market because of what they believe and how they were going to operate family farm. The city went step further and passed a policy unconstitutional policy to ban them from coming from the Farmers Market. We went to trial and over two years later justice moves slowly sometimes, the court handed out a decision that said it was unconstitutional and wrong what the city had done in discriminating against his family simply because of their religious convictions about marriage and so in august, the court ruled that the farmers must allow them back into the Farmers Market, so quite excited about that win. Counselorsare also at risk in this case. This is brian, hes a licensed maker and family counselor in tacoma, washington. For over 20 years hes helped adults and couples and teens and children identify and achieve the counseling goals that they set for themselves. He doesnt choose their goals. He helps them achieve the goals they set for themselves and once consistent with the clientsowned religious and moral convictions. Many of brians clients are christians, many come from a similarfaith background and share his view and under his guidance a number of clients have achieved remarkable success and achieving the goals that theyve set. Su brians counseling practice is currently under threat from a state law in washington that allows the government to censor private conversations between a counselor and counselee and the law prohibits conversation between counselor and counselee that help seek client achieve comfort with biological sex even for clients for ask for this counseling, desire to achieve this outcome and bring hearts and conducts in line with the teachings of their faith, its illegal. But if you have a client who would like to identify as the opposite sex and wants to be flatly affirmed in that, that, of course, does not violate the law. The statete of washington has chosen to censor counselors in only one direction and one direction alone. The so the law forces brian to ken corliss own speech and violates not just his free speech but religious freedom and rights of counselee to actually seek the help that they desire. Threatened with 5,000 per incident and suspension of practice and lose of his license and livelihood. So Alliance Defending freedom is representing brian. We filed a federal lawsuit. Lost to District Court. The ninth circuit ruled against us, they threw out his challenge and said, what youre doing is on the conduct, its speech and doesnt matter. The alliance filed with the Supreme Court and we hope to hear potentially later today or early next week whether the Supreme Court will take up brians case because, again, this is not happening just in the state of washington all across america we are seeing increasing government laws that are being passed that interfere even with the private counseling conversations between counselee and counselor. Category number 3, the right of people of faith to hold jobs and to volunteer their times. This is dr. Andrew fox. Dr. Fox created program and led chaplains to serve firefighters and families and fire victims including those who identify as lgbt all as volunteer and with no pay. Dr. Fox welcomed and serves everyone. He works with all people and had spotless record, zero complaints. One day on his own personal blog dr. Fox shared the fact that men competing in womens sports is unfair due to the biological differences between sexes that are so clear. Keep in mind, this is a believe thats held by more than 70 of the American People across the country and its backed up not only by science but clear common sense. Nevertheless the complaint was filed with the Fire Department against dr. Fox for holding that outrageous belief that men and women are different. Was brought up to leadership and they tried to force him to recant his belief and apologize for what he had said on his blog. He explained that his only intent was to foster conversation and dialogue on this highlydebated topic that is currently in the news. I mean, even today, yesterday. This is a hot current cultural issue and he was going to apologize but not recant what he had said but after refusing to back those back the Fire Department fired him from his position. In essence the city determined that anyone who hopefully holds the believe that men and women are different, we are not eligible for a job with the Fire Department. The city punished dr. Fox for holding view contrary to his own that was expressed on his own time on his own personal blog and had nothing to do with whether or not he was capable of serving firefighters and fire victims. Americans should be free to bspeak freely without the fearf government retaliation. Alliance defending freedom is representing dr. Fox in a federal lawsuit against the city of austin to protect his Constitutional Rights and that case is still at the District Court in the early stages. Health care, yet the state of michigan is forcing Healthcare Providers to ignore biological sex in favor of radical gender ideology. Since 2007 Christian Healthcare Centers have provided highquality primary medical care for the people of western michigan including those who cannot afford it and theyve delighted to offer their services for low or no charge for those who qualify. For manyr people they are the primary care physicians. They treat the whole person. Their design is to treat not just physical needs but emotional and doctors and Healthcare Providers take the time to slue down and pray with their patients in addition to providing the topnotch medical care. But recently michigan courts have reinterpreted michigan civil rights law to include Sexual Orientation and gender identity. Now that means that Christian Healthcare Centers must provide crosssex hormones to a child who request them. They must even if its against their medical judgment, they mustards people with pronouns that are inconsistent with ones biological sex even though as a healthcare professional you Better Believe what their biological sex is and even hire employees that disagree with their faithbase mission. Those requirements directly threaten to provide safe and highquality medical care to every person who crosses through the door. So Alliance Defending freedom is also representing Christian Health care alliance. We filed a suit against the attorney general ofs michigan ad that case is also currently pending. The final category that i want to mention in brief is the right of people of faith to obtain an education and to communicate in School Classrooms on the same basis of everyone else. This is maggie to john, she is as sweet as she appears in the pictures. Shes an absolute delight. Maggie is p recent graduate of Southern UniversityArt Therapy Program and spent last 3 years pursuing masters degree in art therapy with the goal of one day being able to counsel children who have experienced trauma. Maggie, while she was a graduate student posted materials to her social media site, she sent messages to her fellow students, engaged in inclass discussions of everyone else did on topics ranging from religion to politics, to critical race theories, black lives matter, covid, marxism, censorship, all things that she and her classmates were engaging in dialogue together about. Maggiess beliefs were informed by her christian and conservative world view. And they were often not in line with the predominant orthodoxy of the Art Therapy Program, faculty and students. Under the Art Therapy Programs antioppressive framework and calls for social justice, maggies speech was characterized as harmful. The director of the Art Therapy Program actually encouraged maggies fellow art students to report harmful and hateful speech to them to the University Officials and as a result School Officials notified maggie that 3 students had taken out no contact orders against her and prohibited her from having any contact or indirect communication with her fellow art therapy students. Effectively isolating her. In short convictions. Maggie was prevented from speaking to them in share third class at their jobs in the same building and in the public spaces under threat of further punishment from the school. Keep in mind the university gave her no reason why, didnt identify a single law or policy that she had violated and did not give her the opportunity to defend herself. So Alliance Defending freedom filed on behalf of maggie and im pleased that july of this year the school hopefully saw the writing on the wall and decided in her favor. Christian schools, that have been kicked out of associations that will not put female situations. Churnings have been threatened under nondiscrimination laws as well. Threatened if they operate events consistent about their beliefs of marriage and human sexuality. So in conclusion, i want to underscore that the pressures on religious freedom in america continue to mount and if we want a future that includes a harmonious, Pluralistic Society we have to defend religious liberty not just for ourselves but for those around us as well. Each one of the brave clients that you saw up on the screen today never expected or desired to be in litigation. None of them wanted to get involved in this position but litigation is one way of Holding Government officials accountable and pushing back against the censorship and the unjust laws and is a way not just protecting their freedom to continue operating consistently with their faith but way of protecting that liberty for those in their communities as well. R so i hope that each one of us if called upon will have the courage to do the same. Vethank you all so much. [applause] what a great summary. Thank you so much. Yout know, we are never going o hear any of that abc, nbc or cnn. Unbelievable. Its shocking and youvee got probably a hundred more you could tell. The list goes on and on for sure. I believe it. We have time for some questions. If you raise your hand, lizzie has the mic and katherine, if you would give name and affiliation and there you go. Hi, im Cheryl Rhodes and thank you for your wonderful talk. Im an actress and have been conducting an acting school so you can well imagine whats been going on. I lost a client last week because i wouldnt coach an inappropriate script getting ready to make a call about another one so im working with dr. Ben carson on this animation series, star spanled adventures but its really been rough in my world. I heard sam speak this week and im just asking that your area, you know, legal area, how storytellers can help, you know, in this area as far as because thats how the left has made their way through changing the culture and so what i want to be able to do because im working with producers that are likeminded on freedom of religion, we did a whole episode, people came here not from our land but they came for religion freedom and how we can help in any way to be in that storytelling, its not a question but an offering of whatever we can do. Amazing. I cannot tell you how important the Human Interest stories are and so we need people who are excellent storytellers who can get that information out there. Theres a real human cost to violations of religious freedom and we need to be telling the stories of those who are suffering andio who are having e courage to stand up and fight again not just for themselves but for others. As you see others speaking out, they are more likely to see something and push back against the government when they overreach. Just one last thing, i had a young girl cry in my shoulder, strong Christian Family and the girl said, she was identifying as a boy now and her teacher told her that her Christian Family would hate her and i said, honey, your family loves you, the teacher doesnt care chabout you, im sorry. Youre part of the larger story. Thank you for what youre doing. Yeah, absolutely. We are definitely litigating cases that i did not have time to get to. Changing names at school, providing them with access to hormones like you cant get an aspirin under 16 without your moms permission and yet School Districts are just, pushing an ideology on Vulnerable Children and so its important that you know, if you have children in the schools that you know whats going on. I was wonder if you could talk what 303 creative, how that gives you hope for Jack Phillips . Yeah. Because it seems like this court has been incrementalist even with ruling with Jack Phillips and i guess yeah, why now do you think if Jack Phillips case reaches the Supreme Court, why would it do better now . I love that. Yall familiar with the 303 creative win. Lori smith web designer in colorado, incredibly talented. He was eager to get into the wedding business, be able to start doing b website designs inbut, of course, shes in colorado which has been prosecuting jack for a decade. Its smart to chat with a lawyer before you start walking down the path. The Supreme Court gave resounding victory in the spring that basically affirmed that Creative Professionals do have a right not to create message that is conflict with their faith. This is a decade plus in the making and i think lori recognizes that she really stands on the shoulders of giants and courageous trailblazers like barren, Jack Phillips and so many others who were prosecuted for years who lost so much were in the public eyes, trailblazers in this space trying to stand up for the freedoms of so many others. So it was it just was tear inducing to see what loris case should and have a streamdown effect for so many Creative Professionals including jack. We are optimistic that the Supreme Court gave a beautiful and clear directive that you cannot force individuals to speak messages that conflict with their faith and that includes the creative realm as well. Can you hear me . Okay. Im wendy, i have a legal question. Jacks case, that he took all the wayav to the United StatesSupreme Court, the legal premise that was set in that case didnt protect him from the harassment in the legal cases that hes going through now . I dont understand it because it appears to me its the same legal premise and he was victorious and now hes having to be those cases cant be dismissed is my point based on this United StatesSupreme Court case. I dont understand. I dont think colorado is yet fully learned its lesson so it may take a couple slapdowns from the Supreme Court. Youre certainly right that jack won case in 2018 and it was because on the basis, many other grounds on which the court could have ruled for jack but they did so in this particular case on the basis that the colorado had showed such a religious hostility towards him. The State Government officials now here the way that the next two cases began were an attorney who were very targeted, trying to basically like lure jack into more litigation. The state of colorado i think continues to express impermissible hostility towards him. Its not as overt. They are getting a little bit smarter in how that is proceeding but, again, i do think that 303 creative win is the clear legal victory on the grounds of free speech that will be so vialable to Creative Professionals moving forward. Thank you. Yeah. Hi, madison, Young American foundation. I have two questions but they are both pretty specific. Inha the counselor case, do you know if anyone has been prosecuted under that law . I b dont think i know for sure. Im not probably deep enough in the weeds to have a good answer for that. Yeah. My other question in the fire chaplain case, i was just wondering did you consider bringing any claims on behalf to hear from certain in the fire chaplain case . I so i cant speak to what we consider doing. I can say that we did not. I dont know i dont know that i would say theres necessarily a right to have to hear a particular perspective in that way. It would be actionable if that makes sense. I dont think that you could sue the city of austin to make sure theydo had a fire chaplain of a particular faith or perspective. What they did do in shutting him down obviously for something that he said on his own time that was irrelevant to families there was certainly a violation not just of his religious freedom but freedom of speech. Good afternoon, my name is gina and im curious about your personal thoughts and also the stance of your organization on the fbi richmond memo. To be honest im not familiar enough to provide you any commentary. Yeah, sorry about that. Outside my wheel house. Im very focused especially at this point in my career on womens sports cases. Thats where a lot of my litigation and focus is at this point. Sorry about that. Dont pay a dime. We have very generous Ministry Funds to make it possible for me to be employed every day and make it possible to pay for all the legal fees of our clients as well. It certainly couldnt afford Legal Counsel and Small Business owners couldnt afford to litigate a case all the way to the United StatesSupreme Court that could be in the millions of dollars if that is achieved so it is a privilege to have that type of opportunity and to be represented regardless of their financial ability to pay. Adf illegal is a place to find more about partnering. Thank you. [applause] i guess i knew about it but i didnt know how widespread it is. We want to give you the coffee mug with a famous saying. And i want to give you my book. Maybe a girl, may be a boy but its how to raise a conservative daughter and what weve learned over 30 years here. Thank you all for coming. Thanks to cspan and please join us for lunch. It is extremely rare. But friends dont have to be. When youre connected, youre not alone. The rad and Television Correspondent associion is hoinits annual dinner wednesday to award to jourlistsfor their coverage of e investigation and on the ground reporting of the investigation in ukraine. Th event will include entertainment by comedian tyler fisher. The denuclearization efforts and chinas role in the