OpenAI will no longer deny its nonprofit discount to religious organizations under a settlement reached with the Christian ministry Holy Sexuality.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Holy Sexuality, said Wednesday that OpenAI has agreed to scrap its policy barring religious nonprofits from receiving its 20% discount for ChatGPT subscriptions.
“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,” said Phil Sechler, director of the ADF’s Center for Free Speech.
He added, “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.”
Holy Sexuality, a San Diego-based ministry that creates video curriculum on biblical principles of human sexuality, sued in May after its application for the 20% subscription discount was denied based on its status as a religious group.
Christopher Yuan, Holy Sexuality executive director, received a message saying that “academic, medical, religious or governmental institutions are not eligible at this time” for the OpenAI discount, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint argued that the policy violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which bars business establishments from discriminating based on religion. OpenAI’s headquarters are located in San Francisco.
“Our nation was founded on the principle of the free exercise of religion — a cornerstone of our democracy,” Mr. Yuan said in a statement. “Yet some corporations — especially tech companies — emboldened by intersectional ideology and anti-Christian sentiment, choose to unlawfully discriminate based solely on religion. We are grateful for this victory and hope it serves to remind other companies that California law protects all religions from discrimination.”
The Washington Times has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
This isn’t Holy Sexuality’s first victory against a California tech company.
In April, the nonprofit won a settlement against the software company Asana after it refused to give the group its 50% nonprofit discount.
“As part of the settlement agreement, Asana also agreed to remove the religious discrimination language from its policy and website,” Alliance Defending Freedom said in an April 16 statement.
