A Christian physician assistant who said she lost her job at a Michigan hospital after objecting to policies involving transgender patients has secured a substantial settlement in her legal dispute with her former employer.
Valerie Kloosterman will receive $410,000 in damages and legal fees under a settlement with University of Michigan Health–West, according to her attorneys at First Liberty Institute, which announced the resolution Wednesday.
Kloosterman alleged she was terminated in August 2021 after requesting religious accommodations that would excuse her from referring patients for transgender-related surgical procedures and from using “they” pronouns for individuals when doing so conflicted with her faith.
“All I wanted to do was provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my Christian beliefs,” Kloosterman said in a statement following the settlement.
She said the hospital system’s revised policy would help ensure that “providers of faith” and other employees are able to seek and receive religious accommodations.
According to Kloosterman, the changes are intended to allow staff to deliver high-quality care in line with their medical judgment, “because all patients are created in the image of God.”
Her legal team said the updated guidelines will permit employees to decline participation in gender transition treatments when involvement would violate their religious beliefs.
The policy also states that hospital workers “will not be required to use pronouns in a way that violates their sincerely–held religious belief or conscience.”
After the settlement was reached, Kloosterman said that she had only been looking to ‘provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my Christian beliefs’
Kloosterman alleged University of Michigan Health-West fired her in August 2021 after she sought religious exemptions related to workplace policies concerning transgender patients
‘Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against and punishing employees for their faith,’ Kayla Toney, counsel at First Liberty, said in a statement.
She called Kloosterman ‘an exceptional physician assistant who cares for each of her patients.’
‘Employers cannot drive out people like Valerie just because of their sincere religious beliefs,’ Toney added.
Kloosterman’s attorneys said she decided to sue in order ‘to vindicate her constitutional rights and to protect other healthcare providers and employees from similar discrimination.’
Her representation claimed that the settlement ‘vindicates’ Kloosterman’s ‘stellar record.’
Kloosterman had worked as a physician assistant at the Michigan hospital for 17 years before being fired.
She filed a lawsuit in October 2022, claiming that hospital officials had summoned her to a meeting to call her ‘evil’ and a ‘liar’ while criticizing her religious beliefs.
Kloosterman, who worked at the hospital for 17 years, previously testified that she had treated gay and lesbian patients ‘without any complaints’
In her testimony, Kloosterman said that hospital official had told her ‘using a patient’s name instead of preferred pronouns would lead them to suicide, and I would be the cause’
Testifying in front of the Trump–formed Religious Liberty Commission in March, Kloosterman said a hospital official had told her she could not bring her Bible into work.
The healthcare worker appeared to get emotional and have to choke back tears as she spoke.
Kloosterman claimed that she noted how she had treated gay and lesbian patients for years ‘without any complaints,’ but that the official rejected her explanation.
She added that she offered to use patients’ names instead of their pronouns in order ‘to respect their wishes.’
But in response, she alleged the official told her that ‘using a patient’s name instead of preferred pronouns would lead them to suicide, and I would be the cause.’
Kloosterman testified that she had since found a different healthcare job.
‘To this day, I continue serving patients of all backgrounds motivated by my Christian faith,’ she told the Religious Liberty Commission.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the University of Michigan Health system and First Liberty Institute, which represented Kloosterman, for comment.
