Diego / stock.adobe.com
Christian nonprofit The Holy Sexuality Project has won a lawsuit filed against OpenAI after the tech giant refused to give the ministry a nonprofit discount because of its religious affiliation.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal nonprofit that represented The Holy Sexuality Project, reported in a July 16 news release that the ministry had asked OpenAI for a 20% discount on a ChatGPT subscription, a deal that OpenAI usually offers to other nonprofits. OpenAI refused to give The Holy Sexuality Project the discount, saying that “religious … institutions are not eligible.”
According to the release, The Holy Sexuality Project was started by Christopher Yuan to help educate teens and families about Christian teaching on gender and sexuality. The project provides 36 videos on topics like identity, attraction, singleness, marriage, same-sex relationships, and other related topics, comprising more than four and one-half hours of content.
When OpenAI refused to give the nonprofit a discount, The Holy Sexuality Project sued, arguing that the policy and the denial discriminated on the basis of religion and violated California law. The ministry also claimed that both the policy and denial were illegal under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which entitles all Californians to “full and equal” treatment from businesses regardless of their religion.
Less than two months after The Holy Sexuality Project sued, it reached a settlement with OpenAI. The tech giant agreed to remove the discriminatory language from its policy on nonprofits and give the 20% ChatGPT discount to the project.
ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler, director of the ADF Center for Free Speech, applauded OpenAI’s decision in the release.
“Christians and other people of faith aren’t second-class citizens in California, and tech companies can’t deny otherwise available discounts to customers simply because they’re religious,” he said. “OpenAI did the right thing by reversing course, agreeing to give Holy Sexuality the ChatGPT discount it offers other nonprofits, and eliminating its discriminatory policy.”
Yuan also celebrated the settlement in the release, expressing his gratitude for the legal win and noting that free exercise of religion is a founding principle of the country and “a cornerstone of our democracy.”
“Yet some corporations — especially tech companies — emboldened by intersectional ideology and anti-Christian sentiment, choose to unlawfully discriminate based solely on religion,” he stated. “We are grateful for this victory and hope it serves to remind other companies that California law protects all religions from discrimination.”
