Christian healthcare worker defends religious rights

Valerie Kloosterman is the third generation in her family to work in the local healthcare system of Caledonia, Mich. She often talked with her mother and grandmother around the dinner table about the importance of not just living in a community, but being part of it.

“Healthcare specifically gave me that opportunity,” Kloosterman said. “I love the sciences, the biology, just how we are created in God’s image. And I also got to serve, that was a chance to be a servant in medicine.” She regularly saw adults whom she cared for as children bring their own kids to see her.

But after 17 years on the job for Michigan Health–West, Kloosterman was fired in 2021 because she held firm to her religious beliefs regarding medical attempts to alter patients’ biological sex characteristics. Since then, she has been fighting a legal battle to get back the job she loves—this time with a constitutionally protected religious accommodation.

On Thursday, Kloosterman argued her case before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She asked the judges to allow her case to stay in federal court despite a lower court’s ruling that it had to be submitted to an arbitrator for an out-of-court resolution.

Kloosterman’s abrupt firing occurred after the University of Michigan Health System took over her clinic, she said. In the summer of 2021, new leadership required staff to complete mandatory “diversity and inclusion” training that demanded she affirm statements about transgender surgeries and medical procedures.

Kloosterman, who is a member of a United Reformed church, said she could not agree with the statements because she believes gender is designed by God and is “not something we can pick or choose.”

“I took an oath to do no harm, and requesting me to affirm or refer for gender surgery—both in my medical judgment and in good conscience—is doing harm to my patients,” she said. “I can provide compassionate care, honest care, but I can’t lie to them. … I ultimately am responsible to God one day.”

Kloosterman met with staff from the hospital multiple times to ask for a religious accommodation and said they responded with hostility. According to the lawsuit, a Michigan Health–West diversity representative told Kloosterman in July that she was “evil,” blamed her for gender dysphoria–related suicides, and said she could not take her religious beliefs to work.

In August 2021, human resources staff put a “touch base” meeting on Kloosterman’s calendar. When she arrived, human resources fired Kloosterman and forced her to leave the hospital immediately.

“I was stunned,” Kloosterman said. “I could not go back to finish my [patients’] charts, to care for my patients, even to get my belongings that day.”

In October 2022, Kloosterman filed a lawsuit against Michigan Health–West, stating the hospital violated her First Amendment rights and discriminated against her under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Michigan Health–West filed multiple motions to dismiss the case before requesting arbitration, which prolonged the case. In September 2023, the court denied the hospital’s motion, stating that if the plaintiff’s allegations were true, the state had indeed violated her First Amendment and Title VII rights.

The hospital then asked the court to compel arbitration to resolve the case outside of federal court, citing an employment contract Kloosterman signed. In April 2024, the court granted the motion for arbitration.

Kloosterman appealed to the 6th Circuit a month later, contending that her discrimination claims should be settled in court. Her attorneys argued that, by choosing to litigate the employment dispute with her, the hospital had waived its right to insist on the arbitration required by her employment agreement. Last week, a panel of three judges from the appeals court considered her arguments.

Representing Kloosterman, attorney Kevin Wynosky told the judges that the 6th Circuit has never applied the right to arbitration to a case like hers where constitutional rights had been violated. “This case should not be the first time,” he contended.

It’s clear this case should continue in federal courts and not be settled elsewhere, Roger Byron, senior counsel with First Liberty, which also represents Kloosterman, told WORLD. The hospital has lost any right it had to arbitration by “pursuing the matter in federal court,” he said.

Byron explained that the hospital wrongly fired Kloosterman from her role—she merely sought accommodation for her beliefs. The hospital has accommodated other staff members’ requests to abstain from medical procedures for personal or secular reasons.

“Valerie merely asked for the same consideration, but instead of working with her like they did with the providers, they fired her,” Byron said. “It’s unlawful for employers to force their employees to choose between their faith and their job. That’s precisely what Michigan Health did here.”

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order stripping funding from hospitals that perform transgender interventions on minors only further supports Kloosterman’s case, Byron added.

Kloosterman said that the past few years in courts have been difficult, but the situation has brought her family closer and grown her faith.

“I couldn’t do this without my faith,” Kloosterman said. “This battle belongs to the Lord. I’m his instrument and I’m required to be faithful, and I’m hoping that I do that every step of this process even though it can be difficult and hard.”