A slow-rolling legal battle over Pride flags in Los Angeles County, California will now proceed to trial. After a 2023 county ordinance required the display of Progress Pride flags at lifeguard posts in the month of June, Captain Jeffrey Little requested and obtained a religious accommodation, but the county fire department’s lifeguard division subsequently revoked his accommodation and retaliated against him, his lawsuit alleges.
The trial comes after a federal judge issued a sealed ruling last week, according to Paul Jonna, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, which represents Little. Although the full text of the ruling is sealed, in substance, it partially granted and denied motions from both Little and the county.
The controversy began in March 2023 when the L.A. County Board of Supervisors passed a motion “to raise the Progress Pride Flag at … Los Angeles County facilities where the American and California Flags are displayed during the month of June, while we celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month this year and every year moving forward.”
A Fire Department directive implementing that ordinance, EA-231, “directed that where a facility could accommodate only two flags, the Progress Pride Flag should be flown (in lieu of the California State Flag), along with the U.S. Flag; where a facility could accommodate only one flag, the U.S. Flag should be flown.” In 2024, the fire department placed the state flag above the Pride flag in order of priority. Not every lifeguard post is equipped with enough flag clasps to fly more than one flag, or more than two.
The Pride flag order constituted heavy top-pressure from the progressive politicians looking to win brownie points from the Left Coast commentariat. Internally, the county received multiple requests for religious accommodation (the exact number is disputed). In recognition of the pushback received in 2023, Fire Chief Anthony Marrone distributed a note about the Pride flags on May 30, 2024, “Last year we faced challenges with compliance at several Department facilities. I want to be intentional and clear that compliance is not optional.”
In Little’s case, the “compliance is not optional” principle extended even to those who technically received a religious accommodation. Little is a veteran lifeguard with an exemplary record over his 20-year service with the L.A. County Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division. He was even assigned to a special Background Investigation Unit, which investigated incidents on the beach. Little’s stellar character flowed out of his deep Christian faith.
According to the same faith, Little also found the ideologies represented in the Progress Pride flag to be in “direct conflict” with his “traditional Christian beliefs regarding the moral illicitness of same-sex activity, the immutability of sex regardless of gender identity, and the view that all people are children of God regardless of their skin color.” Thus, he became uncomfortable in June 2023 with the county requirement to fly the Progress Pride flag at his lifeguard post, which he understood to constitute an endorsement of homosexual behavior and transgender ideology. In particular, Little objected to either personally raising the flag or requiring his subordinates to do so.
So, on June 18, 2023, “Little requested to be ‘exempt [from] adhering to EA-231’ as a reasonable accommodation because it ‘infringes on [his] sincere religious beliefs,’” according to court documents. Since not all lifeguard posts were equipped with sufficient flag clasps, Little asked to be stationed at posts that would not fly the Pride flag anyway.
At a June 20 meeting with the Fire Department and county HR officer, both parties “agreed that, for the remainder of June, Little would be assigned to facilities that were incapable of flying the Progress Pride Flag due to insufficient flag clasps.” Little “believed he would be able to work in Area 17 — which includes the subareas of the Dockweiler North, Dockweiler South, and El Segundo lifeguard stations [just behind LAX] — without either violating his religious beliefs or running afoul of EA-231.”
However, “On June 21, 2023, before Little’s scheduled shift at Area 17 began, Fire Department Section Chief Lester brought additional clasps to Area 17 and directed lifeguards to raise Progress Pride Flags at each of the three Area 17 sites,” court documents alleged. “According to Little, Chief Arthur Lester ‘knew [Little] had an accommodation’ and intended to ‘defeat that religious accommodation due to his animus against [Little]’s religious beliefs.’”
After arriving at work, Little removed the flags. That afternoon, he was informed via Microsoft Teams that his religious accommodation had been revoked.
On June 22, “Lifeguard Division Chief Fernando Boiteux handed Little a written letter notifying Little that he was the subject of an internal investigation for his ‘alleged misconduct generally concerning the removal of the Progress Pride Flag from County facilities on June 21, 2023.’” It must have taken a rush order to formalize the complaint into a letter in less than 24 hours. At this encounter, Boiteux allegedly told Little that his “religious beliefs do not matter.”
On June 23, Little was suspended from his role on the Background Investigation Unit, “resulting in a significant loss of overtime, income, and prestige,” he argued.
These are only the highlights. In total, Little counted a total of “six adverse actions in just five days,” arguing that these constituted “evidence of retaliation.”
The next week, on June 28, Little received a violent threat in the mail. “Jeff F*** you and your Jesus. Your hate won’t be tolerated,” it read. “We know where you live and work.” The author of the letter threatened to kill him and rape his daughters if he didn’t “pay respect to our pride flag.” Presumably, the author did not have a “burning fiery furnace” on hand (Daniel 3:6).
In May 2024, Little requested another religious accommodation from L.A. County for June 2024. The county partially granted his request, agreeing that he “would not be personally responsible for raising or lowering” the Pride flag, but that he must still require subordinates to do so. This resolution did not satisfy Little, for whom even playing a supervisory role in the celebration of sin still violated his conscience (see Acts 8:1).
More to the point, “the Fire Department has ‘refus[ed] to grant him a standing accommodation for future Pride Months,’” Little argued, making a legal injunction necessary.
Little’s first lawsuit, filed in May 2024, was dismissed as premature. When Little refiled, he asserted nine claims against the states, alleging that the L.A. County Fire Department had violated multiple provisions of the federal Constitution, federal civil rights law, the California Constitution, and California civil rights law.
A federal judge directed the parties to mediation. After a full day of mediation on December 17, 2024, the parties were unable to reach a settlement. In a January 25 ruling, federal judge Josephine Staton, an Obama appointee known for far-left rulings, shrunk the scope of the case from nine claims to five, but denied a state motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.
“No one should be forced to promote political or social causes that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs,” argued California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt. “Even though our Constitution guarantees every American that right, this freedom will be lost if people like Mr. Little don’t stand up and refuse to follow directives they know to be wrong.”
“It is shameful that L.A. County disrespected Jeffery’s simple request over a controversial, ideological flag,” Burt declared. “Every person deserves to know that their religious beliefs will be respected in their workplace and reasonable adjustments will be made to ensure they are not required to break their moral codes for a job.”
The case now proceeds to the trial phase, which should incorporate extensive discovery; the case is far from over.
