Luke Ash, a southern Baptist pastor, was recently fired from his technician job at Louisiana’s East Baton Rouge (EBR) Parish Library after he repeatedly misgendered his coworker. Now he’s claiming that he was fired for his religious beliefs, and an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group leader and other conservative and religious leaders are sharing his story while they all try to get the library defunded.

Ash recently told Tony Perkins, leader of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the Family Research Council, that on July 7, he misgendered someone who uses male pronouns. “I refused to use those preferred pronouns,” Ash said. “The next day, I was reprimanded by my supervisor and the head of reference, and Thursday morning, I was fired.”

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On July 8, his manager gave him a copy of the library’s inclusivity policy, which says that the library is a place where everyone is “welcomed, accepted, and respected,” and that everyone has the right to be addressed by their pronouns, blogger Hemant Mehta reported.

Perkins wrote, “It is somewhat ironic that the library has a policy not to fine patrons who do not return books on time or return them at all, yet they fire employees who refuse to engage in forced speech, and play along with a lie.”

Ash told the local news station WBRZ that he disagreed with the policy, saying, “There are, like I said, religious convictions and then there are other kinds of convictions, and when those things are in contradiction with one another, there has to be given preference to one or the other.”

On July 10, Ash sent a letter to Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards asking him to “defund” the library over its inclusivity policy.

After Perkins and WBRZ shared his story, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) wrote via social media, “Louisiana law prohibits discrimination based on religion in the workplace. This was a public employee in a taxpayer funded public library.”

“Government can’t force you to violate your conscience or deeply held religious beliefs,” Murrill added. “This isn’t California or New York. In Louisiana, a Christian has rights just like anyone else.”

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry also wrote via social media, “Louisianans should never lose their job because they refuse to lie! Louisiana is the real world, and in the real world, preferred pronouns don’t exist— only biological ones!”

Landry made his comment on a re-post from the anti-LGBTQ+ account Libs of TikTok, which is run by Chaya Raichik. The account has been linked to numerous death threats against children, teachers, medical professionals, and LGBTQ+ allies.

“He was just FIRED from a PUBLIC library in Louisiana for refusing to use a co-worker’s ‘preferred pronouns’ because it goes against his religious beliefs,” Raichik wrote. “This is INSANE. This library… receives our tax dollars. Get Luke his job back or defund this library!”

On July 17, David Goza and Lewis Richardson – the leaders of Jefferson and Woodlawn Baptist Churches, respectively – wrote a letter to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board telling them to re-hire Ash and end “all DEI-directed policies” that led to his termination. The letter called the library’s inclusivity policy “a blatant infringement upon the God-given conscience and First Amendment protections of religion and speech.”

“Such a policy is not inclusive — it is coercive,” the letter stated. “It creates a hostile environment for anyone who holds to historic Christian beliefs about sex and gender. This is not tolerance; this is tyranny of ideology.”

Logan Wolf — a board member at Forum for Equality, Louisiana’s LGBTQ+ human rights organization — told WBRZ, “You just have to treat someone with basic decency, and I think that’s at the crux here.”

“[Ash] willingly violated policies and procedures of the EBR library towards another employee, and I think that’s not okay.”

Over 80% of transgender employees have experienced discrimination or harassment in the workplace during their lifetime, according to a November 2024 study by the Williams Institute. Trans people are twice as likely as cisgender LGB employees to experience workplace discrimination.

In the 2020 Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, the court ruled that trans employees should be protected against anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The current presidential administration and religious conservatives have increasingly tried to narrow the impact of this ruling, claiming that it violates anti-LGBTQ+ “religious freedom.”