Bath & Body Works manager fights back after getting fired for refusing to use incorrect pronouns

A former store manager of a popular retail chain who chose to fight back after a single day of alphabet activism collided with her Mormon beliefs, leading to her termination.

Despite executive orders from the president and apologies from the University of Pennsylvania for its past policies on allowing men in women’s spaces and competitions, gender ideologues remained unrelenting in their demand to force others to cede to their worldview. So it was that after more than three years of employment, Jocelyn Boden filed a discrimination charge against Bath & Body Works after her religious convictions kept her from addressing a woman as a man.

According to the First Liberty Institute, which filed the charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Boden and “the transgender employee worked together only one day” at the Layton, Utah location before a complaint had been filed with human resources, accusing Jocelyn of ‘misgendering.’”

“No one should be forced to choose between their job and their faith,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Stephanie Taub. “Bath & Body Works could have easily worked with Jocelyn and offered an accommodation, but instead, they chose to violate state and federal law and fire her. Forcing employees to violate their conscience and religious convictions violates the federal Civil Rights Act.”

She was fired for saying “she.”
: https://t.co/HO2TbUGmYC

After managing a Bath & Body Works store for 3½ years in Utah, Jocelyn hired a transgender employee. When Jocelyn declined to use male pronouns based on her religious convictions, she was accused of gender-identity… pic.twitter.com/ZK82V8Vwla

— First Liberty Institute (@1stLiberty) July 7, 2025

As detailed in the late June filing, Boden, described as a “devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” was fired in May after co-workers had allegedly “chastised and alienated” over her stance on pronouns that found her referring to the employee by her chosen name or nicknames rather than use male pronouns to describe a woman.

“Ultimately, team members complained about Ms. Boden’s religiously motivated decision to the human resources department. This complaint led to an interrogation into Ms. Boden’s use of pronouns,” the filing asserted. “Ms. Boden indicated her religious objection to Bath & Body Works’ pronoun policy, including during a discussion with her district manager just two days before the district manager terminated Ms. Boden’s employment.”

Included in the EEOC complaint, which Taub told CBN News was necessary before a case could be filed in federal court, justification for the termination was listed as a violation of the code of conduct “which prohibits any unwanted conduct directed at an individual based on their sex, which includes sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or transgender status.”

The termination notice was said to detail, “Jocelyn admitted to this behavior and shared with multiple parties that she refused to use correct pronouns. As a result of this investigation, and her admittance, we are making the decision to part ways and end their employment effective immediately.”

The Texas-based First Liberty maintained that Bath & Body Works had violated Boden’s Title VII protections of religious rights as well as Utah’s Anti-discrimination Act for appearing to have “retaliated” against her expression of her religious beliefs.

“I believe that using pronouns out of line with this understanding of gender is dishonest,” expressed the former employee in a statement included in the charge. “My convictions do not allow me to lie by affirming a reality I believe is false. Therefore, I cannot refer to a female using male pronouns.”

“The Church’s teaching that gender is a characteristic of a person’s ‘eternal identity’ means that a person cannot adopt a gender inconsistent with her biological–and eternal–sex,” detailed the filing.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the company maintained to Fox News Digital, “Bath & Body Works complies with all laws concerning employment practices. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate in our management of our associates on the basis of any protected status.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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