A federal employee would rather lose his job at an Illinois Social Security Administration office than view a mandatory workplace diversity video about LGBT inclusion.
David Hall, 42, told the News-Gazette that he is protesting over the video because “I don’t believe God wants me to do that.”
Hall said that SSA employees nationwide received an email in late April informing them that watching the 17-minute LGBT diversity video was a requirement and that supervisors would have to certify that everyone had seen it.
Hall stubbornly refused, citing his religious opposition to homosexuality.
“They wanted me to certify that I had completed the training,” Hall told WCIA. “I’m not going to certify sin.”
Hall’s supervisor gave him two direct orders to watch the diversity video, once on June 2 and again on June 24, but he held his ground.
Because of his refusal, Hall was suspended without pay from Aug. 15-16 and is now prepared to lose his job for his stand.
Hall hired an attorney and requested a religious accommodation to opt-out of watching the video, but has been denied.
“This is something I want to fight and expose to give other Christians the courage of their convictions,” Hall said.
“I can’t tell you how many I’ve worked with that have told me, ‘Dave, we agree with you 100%. I wish I had the courage to do that.’ But they’re scared. … Their fears are being realized through me.”
In a statement provided to the News-Gazette, Doug Nguyen, communications director for the SSA’s Chicago region, said that the mandatory diversity video was “in support of an inclusive work environment, as well as exemplary customer service.”
Hall hired Jason Craddock, a private Chicago attorney who represented a Bed and Breakfast owner who turned down a same-sex couple’s request to hold a civil-union ceremony at their site in 2011.
An administrative law judge ordered the owners pay $30,000 in damages to the couple and $5,000 to their attorneys for violating the Illinois Human Rights Act.
![A Queens couple was sentenced to 25 years to life for beating their 5-year-old son to death. Valerie Owusu, 28, and Emmanuel Addae, 28, of Corona, were found responsible for beating King Owusu “with at least four different instruments” in their Lefrak City apartment around late March of 2021. A jury convicted the pair of second-degree murder on March 22. A judge handed down the couple’s sentence Wednesday. “The jury has spoken, but unfortunately, that will not bring back this young boy,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said following the sentencing. Prosecutors said that after beating King Owusu, […]](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/12212121.jpg?w=554 "A Queens couple was sentenced to 25 years to life for beating their 5-year-old son to death. Valerie Owusu, 28, and Emmanuel Addae, 28, of Corona, were found responsible for beating King Owusu “with at least four different instruments” in their Lefrak City apartment around late March of 2021. A jury convicted the pair of second-degree murder on March 22. A judge handed down the couple’s sentence Wednesday. “The jury has spoken, but unfortunately, that will not bring back this young boy,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said following the sentencing. Prosecutors said that after beating King Owusu, […]")