Man Fired for Refusing Workplace LGBTQ Trainings Loses Appeal and We Could Not Feel Less Sympathy

POV: You are an asshole who won’t attend an LGBTQ training at your job because you say it’s anti-Christian. You get fired. You sue. Defeated! You appeal and you’re smacked down again. The rest of us LOL!

Here are the juicy details: Back in 2018 a guy working for a public organization that helps provide educational programs and services to schools in New York decided he was not going to attend a mandatory LGBTQ training session at his office. Why? Because he was Christian, his beliefs “are dictated to him by the Holy Scripture,” and going to the training would, according to him, go against his religion. Gag me. 

Next, Raymond Zdunski, the guy who is supposed to be working for the public good, refuses to attend the make-up training for people who missed the first one. Court documents say Zdunski asked his bosses about the subject matter of the training via email. When the reply included “recognizing the difference between sex and gender, understanding aspects of identity, understanding how beliefs/feelings/values perpetuate oppression,” Zdunski replied he would not go to the training because he refused to listen to “indoctrination that is in contradiction to the tenets of his faith.” But no problem, y’all, he says he doesn’t need training and shouldn’t have been fired, because he swears he already “loves all people and does not treat any co-worker or any other person differently from anybody else based upon their sexual orientation,” according to his court documents.

Then, according to reporting by BuffaloNews.com, he asks that instead, his bosses at the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) set up a mandatory sensitivity session teaching the persecution of Christians. For real.

So, Zdunski gets fired (LOL again) and he sues, claiming “unlawful religious discrimination.” But the thing is, New York State has laws requiring BOCES employees to attend yearly anti-discrimination trainings. And Zdunski flat-out refused to abide by that law. He and his lawyers were also unable to provide any evidence showing that he was fired because of being a Christian.

“No facts in the record support a finding that Mr. Zdunski was terminated because of his religion; rather, the evidence in the record supports [the] position that his termination was due to repeatedly refusing to attend a mandatory employee training,” said U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford in the 2022 ruling against Zdunski.

So, last year, Zdunski lost his lawsuit in district court seeking reinstatement, back pay, and $10 million in damages. And now, a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in NYC threw out his appeal, agreeing with the findings of the original district court.

“It just seems like the country is against the Christian way of life, and it’s for everything else,” Zdunski apparently said. “We’re not allowed to practice our way of life but anyone else can, it seems.” Yes, because everyone else is totally free to live safely and it’s Christians who are actually the only persecuted people in the modern world. Right.

(featured image: FX)