Christian PA wins $410K settlement after firing for refusing to participate in trans procedures

By Michael Gryboski, Editor – Thursday, July 30, 2026

A University of Michigan hospital will pay $410,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a physician assistant fired for refusing, on religious grounds, to assist with gender-transition procedures.

University of Michigan Health-West, also known as Metropolitan Hospital, reached a settlement with Valerie Kloosterman, who worked at the hospital for 17 years with an exemplary record before she was fired in August 2021.

First Liberty Institute, along with co-counsel Clement & Murphy LLP, LightStone Law and Bossenbrook Williams PC, announced the settlement Wednesday.

Under its terms, the hospital agreed to pay $410,000 in damages and legal fees to Kloosterman and her attorneys, and to adopt a new policy allowing staff to opt out of participating in actions that conflict with their religious beliefs, such as participating in gender-transition procedures or using a person’s biologically incorrect chosen pronouns.

“Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against and punishing employees for their faith,” said Kayla Toney, counsel at First Liberty, in a statement provided to The Christian Post. “Valerie is an exceptional physician assistant who cares for each of her patients. Employers cannot drive out people like Valerie just because of their sincere religious beliefs. We are grateful to have resolved this matter with University of Michigan Health-West.”

Kloosterman, a member of the United Reformed Church, said the settlement vindicated what she had sought from the beginning.

“All I wanted to do was provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my Christian beliefs,” she said. “This new policy ensures that providers of faith and employees at UMHW will receive religious accommodations so that they can provide excellent care consistent with their medical judgment, because all patients are created in the image of God.”

In August 2021, Kloosterman was fired for refusing to finish a training program that required her to use the chosen pronouns of patients and assist in cosmetic sex-change surgeries.

Kloosterman sued the hospital in 2022, claiming that officials refused to grant her a religious exemption and showed contempt for her religious beliefs in meetings discussing her objections.

U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering of the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, a Biden appointee, issued an opinion and order in 2023 that was largely in favor of Kloosterman.

Beckering wrote that Kloosterman “has sufficiently stated a free exercise of religion claim against Individual Defendants” and that she had plausible claims that hospital officials violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

However, Beckering rejected Kloosterman’s claim of freedom of speech violation, writing that, as an employee, she “was speaking pursuant to her official duties, not as a citizen” and thus “has not plausibly alleged that she was involved in constitutionally protected activity.”

In August of last year, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion in favor of Kloosterman’s lawsuit continuing, rejecting the hospital’s request for arbitration.

(Republished from The Christian Post)