Michigan Hospital Pays $410,000 to Christian PA Fired After She Was Allegedly Called ‘Evil’

A Michigan hospital that fired a Christian physician assistant after 17 years on the job has agreed to pay $410,000 and rewrite its rules to protect employees of faith. University of Michigan Health-West settled the lawsuit brought by Valerie Kloosterman, who says she was called “evil” and a “liar” in a meeting about her request for a religious accommodation and was fired about a month later.

Kloosterman’s lawyers at First Liberty Institute announced the settlement on July 29, 2026. The case has drawn renewed attention since, and it is worth telling in full, because it shows what happens when a diversity bureaucracy decides that a believer’s conscience is the problem.

Seventeen years, then one meeting

According to the facts in her complaint, as summarized by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Kloosterman began working as a physician assistant at Metropolitan Hospital in Wyoming, Michigan, after graduating in 2004. She worked at an outpatient clinic providing internal, family and pediatric care. The hospital gave her “exemplary performance reviews,” never disciplined her, and patients knew her as a “caring provider.” She treated all patients the same regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2016, the hospital became part of the University of Michigan Health System and later began operating as University of Michigan Health-West. In mid-2021, a mandatory training on serving LGBTQ+ patients required her, for the first time, to affirm statements about sexual orientation and gender identity that her Christian faith prohibited her from affirming. She sought a religious accommodation.

Around July 29, 2021, she met with the hospital’s human resources director, its diversity, equity and inclusion program director, and a nurse who served as her HR liaison. Asked whether she would use gender identity-based pronouns and refer patients for gender reassignment surgery, Kloosterman said her faith and medical judgment barred her from doing so. But she offered a compromise: she would use patients’ names in place of pronouns, so she could respect their wishes in a way consistent with her beliefs.

“Evil,” “liar,” and a termination letter

That offer, according to the complaint, angered the DEI program director, who told her “she could not take the Bible or her religious beliefs to work with her” and accused her of abusing her power as a health care provider to manipulate patients. He referred to her as “evil” for refusing to give patients what they wanted, called her a “liar” when she said she had treated gay and lesbian patients for years without complaint, and suggested patients would commit suicide if she would not use their preferred pronouns.

On August 24, 2021, an unexpected meeting appeared on her calendar. She was handed a termination letter signed by the hospital’s president and told she was being fired immediately over her refusal to use preferred pronouns or refer patients for gender reassignment surgeries. She was barred from returning to the clinic to collect her things or say goodbye to colleagues she had worked with for years.

These are allegations from her complaint. The Sixth Circuit noted that Kloosterman had yet to prove them with evidence, and the hospital has not admitted wrongdoing in any public statement reported by the outlets covering the settlement.

“Heads I win, tails you lose”

Kloosterman sued in October 2022 in federal court in Grand Rapids, naming the hospital and the administrators involved. In September 2023, the district court dismissed some of her claims but allowed her core ones to proceed: free exercise and equal protection claims against the administrators, and religious discrimination and failure-to-accommodate claims against the hospital under Title VII.

Only then, more than a year into the case, did the hospital try to move the dispute out of court and into private arbitration, relying on an employment agreement Kloosterman had signed before the University of Michigan takeover. The district court agreed and dismissed the case.

On August 27, 2025, the Sixth Circuit reversed. Writing for a three-judge panel whose other two members joined his opinion, Judge Eric Murphy held that the hospital waited too long, having first asked the court for a complete victory on the merits. Defendants, he wrote, may not “play heads I win, tails you lose” by keeping arbitration in reserve in case a court does not throw out the whole case. The ruling sent Kloosterman’s claims back to federal court.

What the hospital agreed to

Under the settlement announced by First Liberty, University of Michigan Health-West must adopt a religious accommodation policy that complies with the law, notify and train all employees on it, grant reasonable religious accommodations without retaliation, and pay $410,000 in damages and fees to Kloosterman and her attorneys.

The new policy goes to the heart of the dispute. Employees will not be required to perform or assist with gender transition treatments, including procedures, medications and referrals, if doing so violates their sincerely held religious beliefs. And they will not be required to use pronouns in ways that violate their religious beliefs or conscience.

“Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against and punishing employees for their faith,” said Kayla Toney, counsel at First Liberty. “Employers cannot drive out people like Valerie just because of their sincere religious beliefs.”

Kloosterman said, “All I wanted to do was provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my Christian beliefs,” adding that the policy will ensure providers of faith receive accommodations “because all patients are created in the image of God.”

Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to University of Michigan Health-West for comment. Its July 31 report did not include a response.

The hospital spent nearly four years in court fighting a woman whose proposed compromise was to call patients by their names. She never refused to treat anyone. Her offense was declining to say words her faith forbids, and the response, as she describes it, was to call her evil and show her the door.

Valerie Kloosterman offered to call every patient by name, a hospital diversity official allegedly called her evil for it, and now the hospital is paying $410,000 and rewritten its rules so the next believer on staff gets the accommodation she was denied.

Editor’s note: This article covers a settlement announced in July 2026 that drew renewed attention in September 2026.

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