NC Catholic School Could Fire Gay Teacher Who Publicly Announced His Engagement, Court Rules

A federal appeals court ruled on May 8 that the firing of a gay teacher from a North Carolina Catholic school was not in violation of federal workplace protections on discriminatory grounds, reversing a previous ruling from 2021. The teacher, Lonnie Billard, was fired in 2014 after he publicly announced his engagement to his partner. The school said Mr. Billard wasn’t invited back to Charlotte Catholic High School as a substitute teacher because of his “advocacy in favor of a position that is opposed to what the church teaches about marriage,” a court document stated. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the school was not in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which offers discrimination protection based on race, sex, and religious affiliation, and instead adhered to the “ministerial exception to Title VII.”...