Furloughed gay teacher fired during pandemic after being outed to his employer

[Behind the Aegis]

A Catholic high school has is facing criticism from students for firing a gay teacher after someone sent the Archdiocese a copy of his marriage certificate. Ohio schools are closed for the rest of the year in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio decided not to renew the contract of a popular teacher who has worked at the school for two decades after finding out he’s gay. Principal Lourdes Lambert said that the school had no choice because it’s “an Archdiocese-owned school.”

Referring to the sacking as “a very unfortunate circumstance,” Lambert explained that teachers have to sign a “teacher-minister” contract in which they agree to not engage in any behavior that is “in contradiction to Catholic social doctrine or morals.”

The contract specifically mentions “cohabitation outside marriage, sexual activity out of wedlock, and same-sex sexual activity.”

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Just a reminder...gay people are real; we are actual minorities; and bigotry against us is real, and in some places...LEGAL! Homophobia and heterosexism exists!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. One more reason why I despised all organized religions.

Oh, and I was raised Roman Catholic myself. By the time I was a sophomore in high school I was having weekly fights with my mom who was insisting I go to mass. Not long after I graduated high school I moved out and never went to mass again.

The really interesting thing here is (for all of you who care about my family history) is at over the next few decades all of us (I'm one of six kids) fell away from the church, including my mother.

Make of that what with you will.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[Mike Nelson]

3. Well...

... I don't fault the Principal, necessarily - the contract is wrong. It should be illegal for schools to discriminate... I bet people at this school knew this teacher was gay and someone took this opportunity to act. Religions survive by changing and including... so they should wake up and adapt, or something more accommodating will take their place.

[madaboutharry]

4. My heart breaks a little more every time I hear of a story like this.

Religion often reflects the cruelty people are capable of.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Out The Outer

If this man were this popular, naming the scum that sent the info to the diocese will heap some scorn on that person.
They stuck their nose in someone else's business. The community needs to know the rat in the room.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Marriage certificates are public records, aren't they? NT

[ProfessorGAC]

21. I Don't Know For Sure

When I got near retirement, I needed marriage license copies to establish co-ownership/beneficiary proof for my pension, and IRA. I needed 3 forms of ID, or DL & passport.
That doesn't seem like a public record just anybody could go get.
Might not be the same in every county, I'd suppose.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. That knucklehead Jesus, what would he have known?

Matthew 5 King James Version (KJV)

5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

{snip}

[jberryhill]

11. Or, the other Jesus...

...who walks into town, tells a woman to get him water, and calls her a slut.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. I saw that. It was one of Sergio Leone's best westerns, but the dubbing was terrible. NT

[jberryhill]

17. The Blessed, the Damned, and the Meek

Never released to DVD, it's hard to find.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. Or, as I remember it,

"Il Beati, Il Dannati, e Il Mansueti."

I wonder what Google will return for that.

It prompted me to ask for "Il Beati, I Dannati, e Il Mansueti."

Life is like a box of chocolate: there are so many strands.

Per un pugno di dollari - Trailer
263,143 views•Apr 17, 2015

YouTube Movies
110M subscribers

Joe, un solitario pistolero, arriva a San Miguel, una cittadina al confine tra il Messico e gli Stati Uniti, dove due famiglie, i Rojo e i Morales, si fanno la guerra da anni per il monopolio del contrabbando di alcool e di armi. In un complicato gioco di delazioni, di colpi di mano, di indagini, Joe aizza gli uni contro gli altri, sperando che si eliminino a vicenda.

And now, for the Lee Van Cleef fans in the thread:

Per Qualche Dollaro in più - Sergio Leone Trailer dal 3 Luglio al Cinema - Sergio Leone
11,783 views•Jun 27, 2014

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5.27K subscribers

Per Qualche Dollaro in più - di Sergio Leone
Torna in sala, restaurata dalla Cineteca di Bologna la TRILOGIA DEL DOLLARO di Sergio Leone
Regia: Sergio Leone. Soggetto: Sergio Leone, Fulvio Morsella. Sceneggiatura: Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni. Fotografia: Massimo Dallamano. Montaggio: Giorgio Serralonga, Eugenio Alabiso. Musiche: Ennio Morricone. Scenografia e costumi: Carlo Simi. Interpreti: Clint Eastwood (il Monco), Lee Van Cleef (colonnello Douglas Mortimer), Gian Maria Volontè (El Indio), Mara Krupp (Mary), Luigi Pistilli (Groggy), Klaus Kinski (Wild il gobbo).

[weissmam]

13. every has their own myths I guess

[sunonmars]

8. Yet catholic schools were fine for years hiring paedo priests, the hypocrisy is strong.

We know the catholic churches form, abusers are ok, but to them gay people living their lives freely and lovingly are evil.

I hate organised religion with a passion.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Religion is obsessed with what goes on in YOUR bedroom

It's a way to create paranoia and control you. You need us, send more money, we need you!

[jberryhill]

10. Man working in jaguar cage attacked by jaguar

Well, I guess he’s no longer going to be earning revenue for one of the world’s largest organized anti-gay organizations.

Catholic schools exist to propagate Catholic teachings, do they not?

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Sort Of

We all know that few church going folks are more "cafeteria" than catholics.
Even my parents ignored some things they thought were silly.
Even as a teenager, I knew my parents didn't believe that sex was only for procreation. They thought that was a ridiculous view.
My dad was a seminarian for 5+ years. (The "no woman, no family thing finally dawned on him.). Even he picked & chose.

[jberryhill]

24. So?

His contract was not renewed "after finding out he’s gay". I'm pretty sure he knew why he had to keep it a secret from them.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. So...

...there is no real expectation that anybody really cared about his orientation.
Contract says xyz, but even the parishioners don't care about x or z.
Easy to assume it's not really an issue.
Not arguing the legal validity. Arguing that a reasonable case could be made that it wouldn't come up.
He's popular, and some parishioners are upset he's gone.
I'd say, for the most part, people didn't care to whom he was married. Hence, the reasonable expectation.

[weissmam]

12. They had a choice to not fire him

They chose the wrong one , this will come back to bite them in the rear

[jberryhill]

18. People send their children to religious schools to get away from such things as teh gays

[jimfields33]

19. Weird they have contracts

If he completed his contract and was not given a new contract, can he sue? I know football players and actors sign contracts and after fulfilling the contract are not given another. I just never heard of teachers getting contracts.

[jberryhill]

22. I can guarantee you that any Catholic school teaching contract...

...provides that the teacher can be fired for personal conduct incompatible with Catholic teaching.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. You're Right

Around here, I would have had to affirm my allegiance to catholic teachings to freaking substitute math & science classes.
At the point I learned that, I was already averaging 8 calls a week. So I just stole the Barbara Billingsley line from Airplane. "Chump don't want da help, chump don't get no help!"

[wendyb-NC]

14. That is such mindless bigotry.

masquerading as hallowed social doctrine. Update your damn doctrine, already. He worked there for 2 decades, 20 years.

[dsc]

15. I wanted to put this out here (five paragraph rule and all)

Ohio does not ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.


First, it should be noted that even if Ohio did ban such discrimination the school almost certainly would have been able to fire him since he was a 'minister'.

Second, this could have been a public school district and it still would have been legal.

[Igel]

28. It's also not just a morality contract based on sexual orientation.

Unless we include the first two bits of "cohabitation outside marriage, sexual activity out of wedlock, and same-sex sexual activity" as only referring to gays.

I assume they enforce those when they learn of them, because if there's a track record of allowing teachers to shack up and for teachers to let their extra-marital sexual relations be known then there would be evidence of discrimination by sexual orientation.

Now, whether that's legal is a different story. Lots of people want the law to be narrowly written when it suits them, but the law to mean whatever they think it should mean today when *that* suits them.

[Demovictory9]

27. K&r