Lesbian fired by Baptist agency to get day in court

[The Straight Story]

Lesbian fired by Baptist agency to get day in court

CINCINNATI (ABP) -- A federal appeals court has resurrected a case involving a Kentucky Baptist children's home accused of using taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate children with religious beliefs.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 31 that a lawsuit filed by taxpayers to end state funding of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children -- now known as Sunrise Children's Services --can move forward.

It overturned a decision by a lower court last year to dismiss the case following a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed taxpayers' rights to sue over allegations of state-sponsored religion.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Alicia Pedreira, who was fired from her job as a family specialist at Spring Meadows Children's Home after her employers found out she was a lesbian. Her termination notice said she was fired because her "homosexual lifestyle" was contrary to the agency's values. A later policy announcement cited KBHC's "Christian values."

Six Kentucky taxpayers, including Paul Simmons, an ordained Baptist minister and chairman of the board of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined the case alleging that the children's home is a "pervasively sectarian" religious institution using tax dollars to indoctrinate children with religion and claimed the $12.5 million a year the organization receives in state funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

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