The Catholic Church already has a storied history of discriminating against teachers and education administrators for either being gay or for marrying their same-sex partners, but the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio is imposing a new kind of anti-gay dogma on its schools. Next year’s contract for teachers not only prohibits homosexuality, but also bans any kind of LGBT advocacy or education:
The contract for the 2014-15 school year explicitly orders teachers to refrain “from any conduct or lifestyle which would reflect discredit on or cause scandal to the school or be in contradiction to Catholic doctrine or morals.” It goes so far as to ban public support of the practices. […]
Under the new contract, teachers are expressly prohibited from: “improper use of social media/communication, public support of or publicly living together outside of marriage; public support of or sexual activity out of wedlock; public support of/or homosexual lifestyle; public support of/or use of abortion; public support of/or use of a surrogate mother; public support or use of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination.”
The policy resembles the “Don’t Say Gay” bills proposed in Tennessee over the past few years, which would have prevented teachers in public schools from even acknowledging the existence of homosexuality in grades K-8. Such proposals were criticized because they would prevent staff from interrupting or correcting anti-gay bullying. Further, multiple studies have shown that having LGBT-inclusive curricula lowers the rate of anti-LGBT bullying.
Anti-gay discrimination and censorship is not a new concept for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Last February, Mike Moroski, the assistant principal at Purcell Marian High School was fired for expressing his support for marriage equality on his personal blog, a position he explained was actually informed by his Catholic faith. The school placed Marosi on administrative leave and said he could only resume his job if he recanted the statements, which he refused to do.
March 26, 2014 5:36 AM
