A gay teacher, Mark Richards, was terminated by St. Francis Xavier School in Louisiana after his late husband's obituary identified him as a spouse. He stated that the termination was directly due to his sexual identity. Despite a supportive petition from the community featuring over 1,500 signatures, the school's officials affirmed that the decision was final and based on a morality clause in his employment contract, which Richards claimed he had not violated during his 21 years of service as a music teacher.
"It's just a stab in the back," the 63-year-old band director told New Orleans' NBC affiliate WDSU. "It's just time for this to stop. The rest of the free world does not think homosexuality is a big deal."
"The reason for this termination is that I am a gay man," Richards wrote in his email to community members.
Richards' sexual identity apparently violates a "morality clause" in the contract for the school, a document he said he signed with "a wink and a nudge since it was no big secret that I am gay."
The contract still specifically outlines that any engagement "in homosexual activity" violates the morality clause, as does obtaining an abortion or fathering a child out of wedlock.
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