California church, preschool win food aid reinstatement after suing over federal gender rules

A San Diego-area church and its preschool will rejoin a California food assistance program in a settlement of a religious discrimination lawsuit over the church’s rejection of a federal definition of sex that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

In addition, the state will reimburse the Church of Compassion and its Dayspring Christian Learning Center $30,478.96 to cover program costs from February to September of last year. The state also will pay $160,000 in attorney’s fees and costs to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the church and school, and the allied law firms National Center for Law & Policy and Advocates For Faith & Freedom.

The Church of Compassion in June filed a lawsuit saying the state Department of Social Services improperly ended its participation in the Child and Adult Food Care Program, which reimburses organizations that provide meals for the needy. The agency cut off the monthly $3,500 to $4,500 reimbursement the church and its Dayspring preschool had spent to feed impoverished students.

The church and Dayspring said its hiring practices and internal policies align with their religious beliefs about human sexuality.

Dayspring said it serves several LGBTQ families “who understand and appreciate the religious instruction their children receive” there, according to a statement from Alliance Defending Freedom.

“[W]hile the Church and Preschool serve all families, they will not teach or promote all messages,” the lawsuit stated. “Obeying the state mandate to respect sexual orientation and gender identity would impact not only hiring, but also policies governing bathrooms, dress codes and pronoun usage.”

“In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and [religious free] exercise,” said Jeremiah Galus, an ADF senior counsel.

Mr. Galus said California could not withhold food from needy families “just because their children attend a Christian preschool. The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith.”

This is not the first time a Christian school had to go to court over the new definition and its application to federal food programs. In August 2022, Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa, Florida, was granted an exemption from new rules governing the National School Lunch Program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the state.

Days after that determination, the USDA’s assistant secretary for civil rights issued a statement saying religious schools can claim an exemption from the Title IX requirements if those conflict with “a school’s governing religious tenets.”