Carla Hale was a physical education teacher at Bishop Watterson High School, a Catholic school in Ohio, for 19 years. She stayed in the closet about her sexuality and kept her lesbian partner a secret for most of her time there. Then, when Hale’s mother passed away, she made the decision to mention her partner in the obituary. A parent read this in the paper and wrote an anonymous letter to administrators that said, “…a coach, at a catholic school living in a relationship in which the church is clearly against, amazes me,” NBC News reported. Hale then lost her job.
Before we talk about how a person, again, has been terminated because of their sexual orientation, we have to respect a private institution’s right to write their own policies and take action where they see fit. Any private institution has a right to do what they want within the confines of the law. The Catholic Church has their own prerogative, even if they exclude people who identify as homosexual.
But in a time where uniting to rally for same-sex marriage and equality is the norm, it is unsettling to see instances where a corporate institution exercises excessive power over the personal lives of their employees. In her 19 years of teaching there had been no instances where Hale’s sexuality impeded her teaching methods or affected her students. It wasn’t until a parent found out about Hale’s lesbian partner that there was a problem. Although the Catholic Church has the right to terminate people if they do not follow their guidelines, in the U.S., when someone is fired because of their sexuality, there comes a growing disdain for such institutions that choose to do so. This blatant disregard for peoples’ sexual freedom pushes people from organized religion.
This is why people disagree with private companies and institutions like the Catholic Church. We are in a progressive time, and when we hear stories like this, which is far too often, the reaction is always the same: Does her sexuality really have that great of an effect on the way she teaches? Is it really a problem?
Hale is not even trying to make her issue a national story. She is not trying to extort anything from the Catholic Church or Bishop Watterson High School. She is not even seeking media attention. It wasn’t until NBC News interviewed her and not her lawyer that she revealed she only wanted her job back. Hale is not looking to extort any money from the high school. Because she is following the school’s standard procedure for filing a grievance, there is hope that by approaching this situation cautiously, she will be rehired.
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