A female police officer is suing the city of Norfolk, Virginia and its police chief for $15 million after allowing a male trans-identified recruit to use the women’s locker room and requiring others to use the man’s chosen pronouns.

Norfolk Police Officer Meghan Grabow, a Catholic, is suing the city of Norfolk and Police Chief Mark Talbot for $15 million, claiming intentional infliction of emotional distress and denial of her right to exercise her religion. Attorney E. Scott Lloyd of Front Royal, Virginia, filed the lawsuit on Grabow’s behalf on August 11 in Norfolk Circuit Court.

“She will not call a biological man a woman or a biological woman a man regardless of dress or behavior,” the lawsuit states, according to WAVY. “She believes that she has a duty in faith to tell the truth according to her conscience and her religious beliefs.”

A spokesperson for the city of Norfolk told The Christian Post that the city cannot comment on pending litigation and neither can the Norfolk Police Department.

Grabow accuses Talbot and the city of intentionally causing emotional distress when they “invited a biological male into the locker room.” That left her to “stand in a state of undress in the full view of a person of the opposite sex, without warning,” the suit explains.

The suit stems from an incident Grabow says took place in 2024, when she was changing in the women’s locker room and was in her underwear when a male recruit who identifies as a woman walked in.

Grabow, an Army veteran who has been a Norfolk officer since 2017, said the recruit was wearing a suit and tie and moved to another part of the locker room after she confronted him.

Grabow later told her superiors that the recruit stared at her “as a man would look at a woman” but was told by police captains to “learn to deal with it” and “find another locker room.” She alleges one supervisor reportedly told her to take her gun into the shower if she felt unsafe.

The lawsuit also alleges that department officials required Grabow and other officers to refer to the recruit as a woman and use female pronouns. Grabow says complying conflicted with her Catholic faith and her beliefs about transgenderism.

Word of the encounter spread through the department afterward, the suit says, but officers were “under intense pressure” not to talk about it.

On August 16, 2024, Talbot, his assistant police chief and 19 officers — 12 men and seven women — met about the matter.

During the meeting, Talbot reportedly corrected an officer who referred to the recruit as “he,” saying the “correct pronoun is ‘she,’” reports The Virginian Pilot. When another officer called the recruit “this person that we hired,” Talbot reportedly corrected him, suggesting he should instead say, “This woman that we hired.”

Talbot also referred to the recruit as a woman and said the recruit “will use the restroom that’s appropriate for her gender.” He allegedly added, “The female facilities are for females. Full stop.”

Officer Martin Powers, a former pastor, pressed Talbot to define what a female is, and the chief allegedly raised his voice at him, The Pilot notes. Talbot then ordered Powers to leave the meeting, and Powers initially refused.

Powers was later placed on leave and fired for failing to obey the order at first. He has since filed a $5 million lawsuit on religious grounds and over what he believes was a retaliatory firing.

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. 

This article originally appeared in The Christian Post.