Religion On The Clock Rises Under Trump Memo Leaving LGBTQIA+ Workers On Edge
Federal employees can now talk up their religion at the office, pray alone or with colleagues off the clock, invite co-workers to services, and decorate desks with faith symbols. The guidance, issued this week by the Office of Personnel Management and first reported by CNN, says agencies “should allow personal religious expression … to the greatest extent possible” unless it disrupts business.
How far can the preaching go.
Staff may “engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs,” the memo says, so long as the chat is not harassing and stops when asked. Picture a park ranger praying with tourists or a Veterans Affairs doctor praying over a patient; both are now officially green-lit.
It’s part of a much bigger picture.
Faith talk at work sounds harmless, yet Christian Nationalist groups that back Donald Trump often oppose LGBTQIA+ rights. Allowing federal staff to persuade colleagues on religion could embolden views that put queer lives in the firing line. At DNA, we wonder: will a junior employee feel free to say “no thanks” when a supervisor nudges them toward church?
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act already prohibits religious bias while requiring employers to make “reasonable accommodations.” The Trump White House is going further. In February, it formed a task force to fight what it calls “anti-Christian bias”, and in May, it launched a Religious Liberty Commission. “We’re bringing religion back to our country,” the former president told a Washington prayer breakfast.
What happens next…
Agencies must rewrite HR handbooks, train managers, and field complaints if conversations turn pushy. Courts may have to decide where free speech ends and workplace coercion begins. For now, faith in the cubicle has official blessing, leaving many LGBTQIA+ employees weighing whether it feels safer to speak up or stay silent about their own identities and beliefs.
Watch this Joe Rogan clip, where Texas Representative James Talarico explains how right-wing politicians turned gay rights and abortion into religious issues.
