De Pere's City Council passed an ordinance in November that prohibits discrimination against transgender people

The measure, which takes effect in March, could face challenges on two fronts

A group of Christian organizations has claimed the ordinance is unconstitutional and has threatened legal action

State legislation could also nullify part of the ordinance that relates to employment discrimination

DE PERE - As a child, Owen LeBrun would sit in bed at night and pray that he’d wake up a boy.

“I remember being even 5 years old and knowing that something was different and I wasn’t living the way I was supposed to be living,” he said.

LeBrun was born female, but for the last several years he has identified as male. Now 19, he is living as an openly transgender man.

He was lucky, he said, to have a supportive family and group of peers and educators at West De Pere High School, where he graduated in 2016.

That isn’t always the case for transgender people, who can face prejudice and violence, and it's why LeBrun was at De Pere City Hall last month to show support for a new nondiscrimination ordinance.

It prohibits employers, businesses and landlords from discriminating against people based on gender identity and expression, which are not federally protected classes, including those who identify as transgender and gender non-binary.

The term transgender refers to people whose personal identity and gender does not

comport with their sex at birth; gender non-binary refers to people who don’t identify

entirely as female or male.

The controversial proposal prompted dozens of residents and students to testify before the City Council both for and against the policy, and it passed only after the mayor broke a tie vote.

The ordinance is scheduled to take effect in March, but multiple hurdles may still stand in its way.

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Christian groups object

The first challenge could come in court. In a recent letter to the city, a lawyer representing several De Pere churches and a Christian radio station threatened legal action, asserting that the ordinance “impinges directly on the constitutionally protected conduct of faith-based ministries and businesses.”

The letter argues churches “must reserve the right to decline any use of their facilities which violates the faith by which they provide those benefits in the first place.” It goes on to say the ordinance could require the radio station, Q90 FM, to “accept and broadcast announcements and advertisements contrary to its Christian beliefs.”

Hope Lutheran Church in De Pere is one of the churches that signed the letter. Its pastor, Matt Baye, said he’s concerned the ordinance could interfere with the church’s ability to express and carry out its Christian beliefs.

“We don't want to preach the whole word of God and receive legal trouble because someone finds language from the scriptures to be discriminatory,” Baye said.

Hope Lutheran is a congregation of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which tends to be conservative, Baye said. While transgender persons are welcome to attend the church’s services, its official teaching is that being transgender is a manifestation of sin, just like other kinds of sin that all people struggle with, Baye said.

Supporters of transgender rights dispute the legal claims asserted by the Christian organizations.

Nancy Marcus, a lawyer for Lambda Legal, a national organization that advocates on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, reviewed the city's ordinance and the letter from the Christian groups.

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Marcus said De Pere's ordinance “is every bit as constitutional as the hundreds of ordinances and dozens of state laws across the country that similarly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity along with other classifications."

Appleton, for instance, passed an ordinance similar to De Pere's in 2013.

“Challenging civil rights laws as unconstitutional is a disturbingly common tactic by those who claim that their religion, or free speech, should allow them to exempt themselves from civil rights laws,” she said.

Alderman Casey Nelson, who proposed the nondiscrimination ordinance, said he’s not nervous about the prospect of a lawsuit.

“I have zero worry about that,” Nelson said. “I think it was just a scare tactic, honestly.”

Pending legislation

In addition to the legal threat, a Republican-backed bill pending in the state Legislature would prohibit municipalities from enacting or enforcing local nondiscrimination policies when it comes to employment.

State Rep. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, has signed on as a co-sponsor of the legislation. He said that proposal could be expanded so it blocks local policies prohibiting other forms of discrimination beyond the employment realm.

Asked repeatedly during an interview whether it should be OK for an employer to not hire someone because he or she is transgender, Jacque did not offer a direct answer.

“All I can say is, to me, it’s just a hypothetical question because it’s based on a self-assertion,” Jacque said. “To me, that calls into question the very legitimacy of the claim in the first place.”

Meanwhile, a similar nondiscrimination ban could soon be proposed countywide.

Stacie Christian, director of inclusive excellence at UW-Green Bay, said she anticipates asking Brown County Board members in the coming weeks to consider such a measure.

“We just think it's good business to have an equitable policy for all people in the community,” said Christian, who helped garner support for the De Pere measure.

Brown County officials are separately considering changes to the county code that would require equal treatment of county employees and job applicants without regard to the person's gender identity or status as a transgender person.