City stops forcing women's shelter to accept men

The city of Anchorage, Alaska, has given up its demand that a shelter for abused and homeless women also house men.

The dispute began after the Downtown Hope Center referred an inebriated and injured man to a hospital and paid for his taxi ride instead of allowing him to move into the women-only facility.

The man later complained to the city's Equal Rights Commission that he wasn't allowed to share the women's facilities.

Then the city accused the center of discrimination, drawing the assistance of the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Now Anchorage officials have dropped their complaint and have agreed with ADF to make the court’s temporary order against the city permanent.

"All Americans should be free to live out their faith and serve their neighbors – especially homeless women who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence – without being targeted or harassed by the government," said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson.

"This is the right outcome. Downtown Hope Center serves everyone, but women deserve a safe place to stay overnight. No woman – particularly not an abuse survivor – should be forced to sleep or disrobe next to a man."

A federal court previously issued a preliminary injunction ordering city officials to stop "misapplying a city ordinance against a faith-based women's shelter."

The city ordinance made it a crime to discriminate on gender identity.

But ADF explained to the court that the Hope Center didn't base any decisions on anyone's gender identity. And further, the ordinance exempts homeless shelters.

"[T]he court concludes that Hope Center has demonstrated that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunctive relief," said the order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

"Faith-based nonprofits should be free to serve consistently with their beliefs and mission," said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker.

"The end of this case means the center can continue its critically needed work to help the vulnerable women it serves and fulfill its duty to do everything it can to protect them."

The Joint Consent Decree stipulates that the city's ordinance "does not apply to Hope Center."

It also calls for defendants, the city of Anchorage, its Equal Rights Commission and Pamela Basler to pay the center $1 in damages and $100,000 in lawyer's fees and costs, which will go to ADF.

All other disagreements have been dismissed.