This very short article talks about a teacher who was fired from her job at a catholic school after her wedding listing ran in the newspaper. She was offered another position, the details of that position were not listed, but school officials did offer her another position.
Oddly, this article appears during a week I was just discussing this topic with my friends during lunch. One teacher had said, "Please do not call teachers sexual orientation out because it could cost them their jobs!" People were in shock and could not believe what they were hearing; teachers could be fired due to their sexual orientation. I followed up with "I knew Michigan was a state that this could happen but I had no clue Arizona was also." I may not have my facts completely straight with Michigan anymore, as this was a few years ago that I had heard Michigan did not have a law that would prevent situations where people could be fired simply because they were gay. I will never forget a few things that got me thinking. The first, I had a professor who was very open about her relationship with her girlfriend and said that she could be fired if the college decided they did not want her due to her being openly gay. I was shocked but didn't fully believe her. And then a few months later, a commercial ran that had a women pulling out a picture frame of either her wife or girlfriend and she stated that she was going to be honest if people asked her who the picture was of, even if it meant she would lose her job. My dad was in the room and I asked him how that could not be considered discrimination. He did not have an answer for me other than the state has no laws to protect people from being fired based off of sexual orientation. I remember just being blown away.
No flash forward at least 4 years to this teacher friend bringing this up in the lunch room. Not that I was happy to hear this was a true thing, but I had thought I was the only person who knew about this lack of protection or better yet, I thought I was just dreaming about this stuff. Phew...someone else knew!
My feelings on the issue...it makes me sad that because of who someone sleeps with they can lose their job. It is none of my business or anyone elses' business what goes on in a bedroom. We all have personally lives for a reason and as long as what we do does not interfere with the teachings in a classroom, than a teacher should really be entitled to do as he/she pleases. There are far worse things that we should be concerned about than who a teacher is sleeping with. I feel horrible for this teacher and only wish that as this one door closes, another great one does.
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