A lesbian teacher at an all-girls Catholic school in Michigan says she was fired because her pregnancy is “nontraditional.” Thousands have rallied to her cause — but she is not the only lesbian teacher to be fired recently by the Catholic Church over a pregnancy. Funny for a church founded on a nontraditional pregnancy.
Webb, who successfully taught AP and honors chemistry for nine years at at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and also coached the volleyball team, told the Detroit Free Press that after she informed school administrators about her pregnancy, they told her she must resign or be fired, citing a school morality clause allowing for firing over public conduct of “lifestyle or actions directly contradictory to the Catholic faith.” School administrators were concerned that her pregnancy was “nontraditional,” she said. Webb, married her female spouse two years ago, and is pregnant through assisted reproduction. The school had no public comment.
Webb later posted on her Facebook page that she was fired “for no other reason than for being pregnant and getting pregnant outside the Catholic way”:
It is a shame because Marian is an amazing school with a wonderful staff and a very promising student body. I feel horrible for the students that I was forced to leave behind and wish them only the best. I feel sickened for my colleagues who are disgusted with this decision but are forced into silence for fear for their own jobs.
It is part of Marian’s mission to educate women about human diversity and in this have really missed out on a true life opportunity to set an example. Instead they are only perpetuating hate. Well I ask that those of you that are in a position to and feel a call to action in the face of injustice, stand up for change.
My job can’t be saved but the torment that the poor LGBT students at Marian must be feeling ( right let’s be real they exist too) the other LGBT staff ( again let’s be real people) and those that are silenced by fear can be helped..
A Change.org petition is asking for Webb’s reinstatement. As of this writing, it has nearly 42,000 signatures. A Facebook group in support of Webb has nearly 5,000 members.
As the New Republic points out, however, Webb isn’t the only teacher fired by the Church for getting pregnant. Last year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati was forced to pay over $170,000 to another lesbian teacher who had gotten pregnant through assisted reproduction and then been fired. And last month, a lesbian teacher sued Butte Central Catholic Schools in Montana when they fired her after she got pregnant with her first child.
As Webb said, this is about more than just her firing. It is also about the message it sends to students — both LGBTQ and not — in the school, taking away a role model who shows that it is possible to have a successful career and family life, and a connection to the Church, while also being openly LGBTQ.
The New Republic notes that the majority of younger Catholics disagree with the Church’s stance on homosexuality. Having studied Catholicism as a medieval historian in graduate school (although I am not myself Catholic), I know that the Church has changed its mind on various matters of theology and canon law over the centuries. Change is sometimes not easy, but it is possible. I find it the height of irony that a religion founded on a nontraditional pregnancy remains so intolerant of nontraditional ones today.
