Catholic schools' 'morality clause' is no excuse for firing LGBT teachers
US Catholic schools have fired three LGBT teachers in the last eight months. It's discrimination cloaked in 'freedom of religion'
Amanda Finelli
theguardian.com, Friday 25 October 2013 09.30 EDT
On the heels of Pope Francis' controversial statement describing the Catholic church as "obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception", comes the third firing of a Catholic schoolteacher in the last eight months. For Catholic dioceses in the US, it seems to be institutional protocol to offer condolences or congratulations to LGBT personnel in the form of a pink slip.
The first was Carla Hale, a nineteen-year veteran of Columbus, Ohio's Bishop Watterson high school. Next was Ken Bencomo, a seventeen-year veteran of St. Lucy's in Los Angeles, California. And now, Tippi McCullough of Little Rock, Arkansas, whose termination last week takes the prize for the least time wasted capsizing someone's life: 40 minutes.
Forty minutes after Tippi McCullough wed her partner in New Mexico, she received a phone call from Mount St. Mary's principal, Diane Wolfe, informing her of her breach of contract by violating the morality clause. McCullough was then presented with two options: resign and receive a "glowing recommendation" or be fired.
Management responsible for McCullough's forced resignation has responded to the public outrage in similar fashion as their predecessors in the Hale and Bencomo cases – refusing to discuss McCullough's resignation publicly. Mount St. Mary's CEO, Karen Flake, issued a vague statement "for public consideration" on 21 October. The statement, which never explicitly mentions McCullough by name, states that the mission of Mount St. Mary's is to "adhere to the teachings of the Catholic church" even if the "church's teachings may be difficult, challenging and/or unpopular".
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/catholic-schools-fires-gay-teachers