The Indiana Supreme Court is upholding Cathedral’s firing of a teacher for same-sex marriage. The high school teacher taught foreign language and social studies at the school for 13 years.
Cathedral fired Joshua Payne-Elliott in the summer of 2019 after the Archdiocese ordered all Catholic schools to enforce their morality clause. Payne-Elliot married his partner in 2017 which broke that clause.
Payne-Elliot filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis alleging the Archdiocese had illegally interfered with his employment at Cathedral. He was offered a new contract just a month before he was fired for being in a same-sex marriage.
The Indiana Supreme Court will not reinstate the lawsuit as decided Wednesday. Payne-Elliot says the decision will affect the future well-being of LGBTQ students.
“While we are disappointed by today’s decision, we would like to make clear that the Archdiocese of Indianapolis ordered the school to breach my valid, legal employment contract – a contract that the school had renewed three times after the school was aware of the relationship. We would also like the citizens of Indiana to know that millions of taxpayer dollars are being redirected each year from public schools (where teachers have enforceable contract rights and rights to be free from discrimination) to private schools which target LGBTQ employees. We fear for the well-being of LGBTQ students and faculty in Catholic schools.”
Tony Katz says the school does not owe the teacher and the ruling was correct.
“First, it’s a Catholic school and when you say ‘targeted’ were you physically attacked sir? No, you weren’t. You were politely fired. It might not have felt good maybe, but you weren’t attacked or under threat. That never happened as we have the reporting. Second, if we are clear if you are stating that millions of tax-payers dollars are being redirected each year from public schools – good. Public schools have been a massive let down, they have failed.”
The attorney for the Archdiocese also commented after the decision stating, “Today’s decision is a powerful dose of common sense. It is also a powerful application of the principle of “separation of church and state.”
