Same sex marriage is perfectly legal in the state of Washington, but Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle recently fired popular Vice Principal Mark Zmuda after another teacher complained that he had married his long time partner. The school was completely aware of Mr. Zmuda's same sex relationship when they hired him, and apparently had no problem with it--until he married.
In another situation at the same high school, Stephanie Merrow, who is engaged to her same sex partner, has been hired, (for the second year), to assist with the annual school musical. She finds the situation confusing, as do her students.
Situations like this, which have played out with similar school firings in Ohio, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and even California and New York, just seem so hypocritical. Same sex marriage is against Catholic doctrine. I get that. But so is being a homosexual and having sex outside of marriage.
It seems that the church is saying: "We know you're gay and our church doctrine tells us that's wrong. We also know that you and your same sex partner are co-habitating so you're probably not a celibate gay, which is really wrong. But, we'll ignore all that and hire you because you are exactly the person we want teaching our children. However, be warned, if you make a life commitment to your same sex partner, we don't want you around because you're a bad influence on our young charges."
I don't see how this double standard can continue to be sustainable. To quote Pope Francis, "Who am I to judge?"
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