Catholic church leaders across the state are considering rewriting employment policies in the wake of legalized gay marriage and may go so far as to call for the firing of church workers who tie the knot with same-sex partners. The proposed new policies - which also include a more lenient proposal to let employees follow their own consciences - are articulated in memos circulating among the state's four bishops and their staffs. No decision on which policy to embrace is imminent, said several people who have seen the documents.
So ... let me get this straight-ish: the Massachusetts Church is fine with having gay employees (one would reasonably assume that they're not all celibate), but if said employee actually marries, which is now entirely legal, then the Church might just want to fire them.
Well, the court battles resulting from that mess ought to be vastly entertaining. I suppose it might depend on whether or not they knew the person was gay at any prior point of their employment. If they didn't know, then I suppose the Church and its ancillary businesses might reasonably make the case that they wouldn't have hired the person. If they knew, however, then that would make the case somewhat problematic. There's also the small point that, even if someon the jury didn't approve of gay marriage generally, firing someone because they married is the sort of thing that will likely rub people the wrong way.
Posted by iain at June 20, 2004 09:40 PM
