Union Gospel Mission seeks high court ruling on hiring case

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a case in which the Washington Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawyer who sued the mission over its anti-LGBTQ hiring policy. Attorney Matt Woods sued the mission in 2017 when it refused to hire him to its free legal aid clinic after he disclosed he was in a same-sex relationship. The mission, one of the largest homeless services nonprofits in the Seattle area, argued it was exempt from the state’s anti-discrimination law as a religious employer. A King County Superior Court judge agreed but the Washington Supreme Court overturned the judge’s decision, kicking the case back to the lower court.