A church’s lawsuit in Iowa that gained national attention has benefitted from a federal judge’s preliminary ruling.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose on Oct. 14 denied a request from Iowa state officials to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Fort Des Moines Church of Christ.That means the case will progress to trial.

A similar lawsuit is moving forward in Massachusetts, where four church congregations are fighting a similar law approved there in July.

Concerned about a pamphlet created by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the church filed the lawsuit with legal representation from Alliance Defending Freedom . The pamphlet suggests churches are not exempt from the state’s anti-discrimination law for transgender people.

Drew Zahn of The Family Leader says Judge Rose suggested churches are not public accommodations.

“That’s good news,” Zahn says. “And she said that governments have no business determining which church activities are ‘religious’ or not.”

Reading from the judge’s decision, ADF noted that Rose called the church’s fear of prosecution under the state law “objectionably reasonable.”

Like Zahn, ADF recalled that the judge also suggested churches are not public accommodations subject to the government.

OneNewsNow reported in a July story that ADF filed suit on behalf of the Church of Christ congregation, which was alarmed by a state agency deciding the definition of a “bona fide” religious purpose. That news story quoted two people, a homosexual activist and a law professor, who told an Iowa newspaper the church had no legal right to be exempt from a public accommodation requirement.

Zahn says Iowa’s legal fight over transgender rights is not confined to that state, and he blames legislatures that allow their vaguely worded laws to be interpreted by an agency such as the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

Meanwhile, Zahn says he and The Family Leader applaud Pastor Michael Demastus of Ft. Des Moines Church of Christ for taking the commission to court.