A Hershey spa is defending itself in court from claims it punished a worker who refused to take a transgender woman – described as a “well-known political figure” – to the female locker room.
Jeriah Sellers said her religious belief that God created only two sexes prevented her from escorting the woman at MeltSpa, where she is a concierge expected to show customers the amenities of their locker room.
But when a biological male who identifies as a woman checked in on May 28, she expressed her unwillingness to a supervisor who performed task themselves. She was suspended one day without pay and filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In a motion to dismiss filed last month, Hershey Resorts said Sellers did not raise her religious objection until days after the incident.
“Plaintiff’s only religious accommodation request… was that she did not have to escort a biologically male guest into the women’s locker room,” the motion says.
“However, granting Plaintiff this accommodation would outright sanction discrimination against her co-workers and Defendant’s clients in violation of the (Pennsylvania Human Rights Act).”
Hershey cites a 2024 decision from Washington, where a woman requested that she not work with clients who use preferred pronouns. This was an undue hardship on the employer, a court ruled.
That company would have been in the “untenable position of affronting both federal and state anti-discrimination law, and exposing it to potential liability,” the court said.
“A similar set of allegations here yields a similar result,” lawyers for Hershey Resorts wrote.
“Plaintiff’s only plead accommodation —to not escort a biologically male guest into the women’s locker room— would treat transgender clients different, targeting transgender clients on the basis of their gender identity.
“To recognize such an accommodation condones discrimination at its worst, allows a MeltSpa employee to facially discriminate against guests, and opens Pandora’s box. Can a Jewish Palestinian refuse to service an Israeli Jew? Can a Caucasian refuse to service an African American? Where is the line, and who draws it?”
Sellers’ faith tells her God designed only two sexes and cites the Book of Genesis – “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Sellers says women as young as 13 years old could be changing in the locker room before their spa treatments and that she is not comfortable with showing a biological male around it.
“Also central to the plaintiff’s Christian faith is her calling to speak and act truthfully,” the complaint says.
“The locker rooms are designated on the sexual binary: ‘Men’s Locker Room’ and ‘Ladies Locker Room,’ and have no signage designating them based on the scores of gender identities, so Plaintiff would be deceiving women by bringing a male into the space where women believe their privacy will be protected from members of the opposite sex.”
The supervisor and MeltSpa manager apparently did not have a problem granting Sellers’ request for an accommodation, which was limited to guiding transgender women through the female locker room. Other staff routinely handle this task for all customers when the concierge is busy with another task.
But after the Human Resources department caught wind, trouble started. It pointed Sellers to a transgender policy that Sellers previously had been unaware of and informed Sellers that she violated it.
A meeting a week after the incident resulted in Sellers’ suspension.
The lawsuit alleges violations to Sellers’ civil rights and was filed by Andrea Shaw of Carlisle. Her firm, the Law Office of Andrew H. Shaw, represents Christians in religious liberty cases.
