Born Again Used Books, a Christian bookstore in Colorado Springs, has filed suit in federal district court against the state of Colorado, claiming that recent amendments to the state’s anti-discrimination law will force the bookstore owners to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

The bookstore has been in business for more than 20 years, and for the past five years it has been managed by Eric and Sara Smith. The store has about 50,000 books in stock, but the Smiths will not sell books that reject Christian teaching or promote lifestyles inconsistent with the Christian faith.

In May, the state amended its anti-discrimination law to require that public accommodations use a person’s requested name and pronouns, even if they are inconsistent with the person’s sex.

The Smiths believe that using names and pronouns in this way would affirm that a person can change his or her God-given sex—which the Smiths’ Christian faith holds to be neither possible nor truthful.

According to the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the bookstore, the Smiths serve all customers with respect, no matter who they are, but they cannot speak messages that conflict with their beliefs.

“Born Again Used Books wants to put their policy on how they refer to customers into writing,” ADF says on its website. “And it desires to publish a blog post explaining its Christian beliefs underlying the policy. However, the amended Colorado law prohibits this and forces them to profess an ideological viewpoint they oppose.”

In its legal complaint, the bookstore claims that the state law violates the bookstore’s constitutional rights of free speech, press and assembly; its free exercise of religion; and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. And it puts the store at “substantial and imminent risk of enforcement and punishment simply for exercising its constitutional rights.” So, without an injunction that would prevent the state from punishing the store, the bookstore must refrain from formalizing and distributing its pronoun policy and blog post.

“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed, the government has no business trying to strip traditional views about sex and gender from the marketplace of ideas,” said ADF Senior Counsel Hal Frampton, director of the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives. “Nor can the state compel Coloradans to speak in ways that violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Born Again Used Books shouldn’t have to continually choose between violating the law and speaking consistent with its Christian beliefs.”

Photo: Courtesy of ADF