Christian HVAC tech fired after invoking the "Billy Graham Rule" sues employer

Paul Ostapa’s beliefs reveal how faith-based sexism still poisons modern workplaces

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For 16 years, Paul Ostapa worked as an HVAC technician in Latham, New York, but the company he worked for—Trane U.S.—apparently made his life a living hell in 2022 when they did something unconscionable: They hired a woman in his department.

Ostapa, a Southern Baptist, told his boss that he couldn’t be sent on service calls alone with that woman because, obviously, she had lady parts. His Christian faith taught him he couldn’t be left alone with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

HVAC workers who know how to do the job (image via Adobe Spark)

This is better known as the Billy Graham rule—and like so many things associated with Billy Graham, it’s a horrible idea wrapped in the cloak of Christianity. Ostapa presumably wanted to avoid her because the optics might be bad, or because it could lead to infidelity, or because he wanted to avoid false allegations.

He didn’t give a damn what his absurd beliefs meant for his colleague, who might miss out on opportunities that he would be given, or what it would mean for his company, since they would now have to work around his ridiculous limitation.

Ostapa was treating a professional relationship like a personal one, implying that the possibility of sex (or at least the hint of it to outsiders) was always on the table. He wanted a “reasonable accommodation” to avoid that scenario.

When he raised the concern in a private conversation with his manager, the latter just laughed it off, telling Ostapa he didn’t need to worry about anything because the new hire was a lesbian. He said it didn’t matter.

As Scripture compels Paul [Ostapa] to believe, his presence alone with a woman carries with it the appearance of evil from which he is to abstain. Paul further explained that the purpose of the teaching is to protect his reputation by insulating myself against false accusations.

Like many Christians who hold similar beliefs, he never bothered explaining why he couldn’t just be a goddamn professional and complete a task with his colleague like normal people.

But the manager didn’t put up a fight. He told Ostapa he would accommodate the request, which probably wasn’t a big deal since there were over a dozen HVAC people working in his unit and up to 30 in the company altogether. Adjusting a schedule so that Ostapa wouldn’t be alone with the woman probably didn’t seem like a big deal.

Importantly, all of this happened during a verbal conversation. There was no official record of the request or the manager’s supposed approval.

About three months later, Ostapa, the woman, and another male colleague were sent to complete a job. That wouldn’t have been a big deal, except the other male colleague had to leave early. So Ostapa put on his big-boy pants and finished the job with the woman. No big deal, right?

But the incident, Ostapa later said, caused him “great inner conflict and emotional turmoil.”

A few months after that, when Ostapa was doing a solo job for the company, he was informed that the woman would be joining him on site the next day. He told the dispatcher that wasn’t okay—his manager told him he wouldn’t be surrounded by girl cooties!—and so the company didn’t send the woman to work with him, but the dispatcher reported his complaint to the HR department.

The company soon placed Ostapa on administrative leave… before firing him in late October of 2022. The official reason? “Insubordination” for not working with another employee.

Ostapa said his manager had approved his accommodation, but the HR person said there was no record of that “because it did not go through the proper channels.”

Ostapa soon filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), saying he was being discriminated against because of his religious beliefs. The company denied that charge and said he was fired for other reasons. In any case, the EEOC ultimately chose not to investigate the problem and told Ostapa that he had 90 days to file a lawsuit if he wanted to go that route.

And that’s what he’s now done.

In a federal lawsuit filed in the Northern District of New York, brought about by right-wing Liberty Counsel (which also represents bigoted Christian town clerk Kim Davis) Ostapa says Trane U.S. violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. He claimed that not only did they not accommodate his reasonable faith-based request, they retaliated against him:

By refusing to engage in the legally required interactive accommodation process, grant a religious accommodation for Paul’s sincerely held religious beliefs, honor the religious accommodation previously granted to him, and ultimately terminating Paul for adhering to his sincerely held religious beliefs, Defendant discriminated against Paul on the basis of religion with respect to the terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

…

Defendant’s termination of Paul’s employment is the direct result of Plaintiff’s exercise of his sincerely held religious beliefs and expression.

…

In retaliation for Paul exercising his right afforded by Title VII to seek reasonable accommodation in light of the conflict between his sincerely held religious beliefs and the requirements of his employment, Defendant subjected Paul to adverse employment actions and a hostile work environment, including interrogation and harassment, forced abrupt administrative leave, and termination of his employment.

He also said the company’s actions violated New York State Human Rights Law. He wants the court to get him his old job back, with back pay, plus damages and legal costs.

As Religion News Service notes, it’s not clear which way this case will go because it’s an open question whether Ostapa’s request really put a burden on his employer:

The Civil Rights Act requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations, but not if doing so creates an undue hardship. Most legal disputes over religious accommodations, such as the case of a postal worker who objected to working on Sundays for religious reasons, hinge on determining the line between a reasonable accommodation and a hardship. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in the postal worker’s favor.

…

In 2019, a sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina sued after being fired for refusing on religious grounds to ride alone with a female colleague, but that suit was eventually settled before going to trial.

In 2013, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a male dentist had not violated discrimination laws when he fired a female assistant at the urging of his wife. The dentist and his assistant had been texting, which his wife saw as a threat to their marriage, according to the ruling.

As part of their ruling, the Iowa justices said the friendship between the two — and not the gender of the hygienist — was at issue. They also noted the dentist may have treated his assistant badly by firing her, but had not discriminated.

Regardless of how this lawsuit plays out, the entire saga is a reminder of just how corrosive the Billy Graham Rule can be when it shifts from pulpits to workplaces. It effectively sanctions gender-based discrimination, elevating one man’s fragile sense of virtue above a woman’s right to work as an equal.

The fact that Ostapa’s request was based on his faith shouldn’t take away from how he was perpetuating the patriarchal idea that women must always be seen as temptations, never peers. To frame this as a “reasonable” request is to accept a world where professionalism is impossible and where men’s paranoia dictates women’s access to opportunity.

When Ostapa’s Christian beliefs required his company to treat a female co-worker as radioactive when working alongside him, his faith crossed from personal conviction into public harm. He’s using religion to protect his own inability to control himself. And if perception is the problem, the best way to make sure no one suggests anything improper is to just do the damn job. In a modern workplace, if Ostapa is unable to work with a qualified colleague because of her gender, then the problem is him, not the company for refusing to accommodate his delusion.

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