A petition is making the rounds to protest the firing of another gay high school teacher, this time in Los Angeles.  From the Change.org press release:

Current and former students of St. Lucy’s Priory High School will deliver more than 45,000 petition signatures from a popular Change.org campaign asking the Los Angeles-area Catholic school to reinstate ousted gay teacher Ken Bencomo. Supporters say he was fired after photos from his marriage to longtime partner Christopher Persky appeared on the front page of a local newspaper.

I want to separate the question whether Catholic institutions have the right to do this sort of thing from the question whether they should, on either moral or prudential grounds.  I am not aware of divorced and remarried teachers getting fired.  The axe always seems to fall on those who are somewhat more easily marginalized:  unmarried pregnant teachers, gay teachers, etc.  Am I wrong about that?  Feel free to post examples to the contrary in the comments.

Eduardo M. Peñalver is the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School. The views expressed in the piece are his own, and should not be attributed to Cornell University or Cornell Law School.

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