IRS Grants Tax-Exempt Status To Lesbian ‘Pussy Church Of Modern Witchcraft' That Excudes Men

Forbes, Lesbians Want A Church Of Their Own And IRS Approves:

Pussy Church of Modern Witchcraft might strike you as something you would find in the Onion, rather than here on a Forbes tax blog, but it is a real deal.  You can find it on Charity Navigator and Guidestar.  The IRS recognized it as a 501(c)(3)  organization and went the extra step of recognizing PCMW as a church, the most enviable of all tax statuses. exempt not only from income tax but also from the transparency that filing Form 990 creates.  A church does not have to apply for exempt status, but it is a prudent step particularly for an innovative organization like PCMW.  My source indicated that the approval process was reasonably quick and there was no push-back from the IRS. ...

From the website we get:

Why the Pussy Church?
We come together to form a congregation of adherents to our female born, lesbian-feminist-based religions beliefs and traditions. We intend to serve our adherents through worship, service, and sistership with our congregants. We intend to accomplish the growth and continued strengthening of our congregation. The beneficiaries of our accomplishments are the adherents to our religious beliefs – Women and Girls. We will achieve our purpose through regular worship and service with our congregants and with other Women and Girls who may wish to become congregants.

Why is the Pussy Church for women and girls only?
Women are oppressed globally on the basis of our biological sex. Gender is a mechanism of Women’s oppression globally. At Pussy Church (PCMW), we serve Women and Girls and our emotional and spiritual needs. We cannot serve these needs in the presence of Men, as Men as a class are the cause of the harm that women experience globally. All groups have the right to associate freely as they see fit. As a religious organization, Pussy Church is also protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution permitting free exercise of religion as well as the Maryland Declaration of Rights, which provides that all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.

How do you define “Woman” and “Girl”?
A Woman is an adult female human. A Girl is a minor female human. The Pussy Church serves Women and Girls only. Males are not permitted to participate, regardless of how they identify. We expressly reject the concepts of gender identity, transgenderism, and gender as being meaningful to defining what a Woman or Girl is.

I think that the legal work that went into forming PCMW was quite good.  The fact that it sailed through the approval process is not necessarily evidence of that, since the IRS is under a lot of pressure and committed to speedily dealing with exempt applications.  That is fallout from the seemingly interminable scandal.  Nonetheless, as a layman, I see the handiwork of a good lawyer in the articles of PCMW.  Whether an organization is a church or not as far as the IRS is concerned is a facts and circumstances determination that has nothing to do with its underlying belief system.  As Adam Chodorow noted in an amicus brief on the constitutional challenge to the parsonage exclusion:

Most religions have at their core non-verifiable beliefs that can be difficult for non-believers to accept. Requiring the IRS and then courts to determine which beliefs or purported beliefs should count as a religion for tax purposes is clearly entangling.

Going Concern, IRS Grants Tax-Exempt Status to Lesbian ‘Pussy Worship’ Church

Update:

• Peter J. Reilly (Forbes), Why Gender-Critical Radical Feminists Might Want A Church And Why IRS Approved
• Eugene Volokh (UCLA), The Pro-Lesbian Anti-Transgender "Pussy Church of Modern Witchcraft" Recognized by IRS as Church