Michigan hospital will change LGBT policies, pay fired physician assistant $400,000 after lawsuit

A major health system in Michigan will make a six-figure payout to one of its former physician assistants whom the institution fired after she refused to adhere to LGBT-related policies there.

The University of Michigan Health-West system will also create a religious accommodation for employees who do not wish to assist with transgender-related “transitions” or procedures or use LGBT pronouns in a way that violates their religious beliefs.

The legal group First Liberty Institute announced the settlement on July 29 , revealing that Valerie Kloosterman and her attorneys would receive $410,000 in damages from the health institution.

Kloosterman, a Christian, had worked at the hospital for 17 years starting in 2004. She was fired in August 2021 after she refused to use LGBT pronouns and make referrals for transgender-related “transition” drugs and surgeries, according to a 2022 lawsuit filed in U.S. district court.

The suit alleged that hospital workers “denigrated [Kloosterman’s] religious beliefs” and “blamed her for gender dysphoria-related suicides” before firing her. The hospital “had no interest in working toward a cooperative, religiously tolerant solution,” the…