Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
If anyone is still wondering whether “gay rights” is turning into a war on religion in the U.S., the case of a Catholic school being bullied after firing a homosexual who recently married his partner is just another example of this alarming trend.
The Daily Caller is reporting that St. Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora, California fired Ken Bencomo, 45, a homosexual teacher after his wedding photos appeared in a local newspaper. Bencomo and his partner, Christopher Persky, 32, were cited as being among the first same-sex couples to wed in San Bernardino County after the Supreme Court opened the way for the unions earlier this summer.
When the school found out about the marriage, officials told Bencomo they would not be renewing his contract this fall and referred to the wedding and the attendant publicity as the reason.
Bencomo decided to sue, claiming that the school knew about his sexual orientation for roughly 10 of the 17 years he taught at the school. In fact, he even even brought Persky to school events and introduced him as his partner.
In a statement, school officials called St. Lucy’s Priory “a community of faith for those who wish to express, practice and adhere to values in education based on the Roman Catholic tradition.”
They noted that employees have a contractual obligation to abide by those values in public.
“While the school does not discriminate against teachers or other school employees based on their private lifestyle choices, public displays of behavior that are directly contrary to church teachings are inconsistent with these values ,” the statement said.
Not surprisingly, a former pupil at the school started an on-line petition drive to demand that St. Lucy’s give Bencomo his job back.
“As a proud alumni of St. Lucy’s, I am disgusted and heartbroken by this act of prejudice. I believe that Mr. Bencomo deserves to keep his job, and that discrimination against teachers based on their sexual orientation must end,” said former student Brittany Littleton in the Change.org petition.
The petition has more than 16,000 signatures.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue said the school didn’t make up the rules “on the fly” but because they represent values that are incorporated into the contractual obligations of all of its instructors and employees.
“There are those who, like Republican gay activist David Lampo, think it is absurd to maintain that gay marriage threatens religious liberty,” Donohue writes.
“It would be instructive to know what in the world they think is going on in this case. The truth is that it has been known for years that gay rights and religious rights are on a collision course. Importantly, only one of those rights is enshrined in the First Amendment. Hint: it isn’t the one that deals with sex.”
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