Wednesday 28 April 2010

Gay Gordons

Gordon Brown finds himself in the doggie doos as a result of not turning his mic off when he got into his car. He referred to a woman as 'that bigoted woman'. God knows what she said, but he has been and apologised personally.
Good-oh.
Still, the British people should count themselves lucky that this week they have a Prime Minister who not only recognises bigotry, but finds it unacceptable. This probably won't be the case next week if the Tories take power. Their party's name is a by-word for bigotry and hypocrisy.

In Vancouver, the 'Little Flower Academy' Catholic girls' school has 'sent home' a teacher for being lesbian.
Clever.
The Supreme Court of Canada protects the LGBTQ community from discrimination so they certainly couldn't sack her, but her contract will not be renewed when it ends in June. Since they have acknowledged that she's a good teacher, that certainly sounds like discrimination to me.
It's interesting to note, that her sexuality only became known when she asked the employer for parental leave since her partner is having a baby. The next thing we know is that the parents are complaining, you know, the usual thing, if people find out about homosexuality, they'll all want to do it and the next thing you know, the human race has died out. Oh, hang on, didn't this same-sex couple want parental leave because they are expecting a baby?
I know which part of the human race I'd like to die out, sadly they have some kind of objection to contraception.
But the upside of this story is that the comments are mainly sympathetic to the teacher and the majority of those who have read it have said they agree with those comments and disagree with the homophobic ones.
That is quite heartening.

6 comments:

Sleepy said...

Not a huge fan of Gordo but I did feel for him with that one..
"Where are all these Eastern Europeans coming from?", whined the Northern bitch.
FUCKING EASTERN EUROPE probably you thick waste of organs!
The fact she was only called a Bigot is a testament to his restraint!

The school? Catholic slimeball bastards!
What's happening with the priest in BC who can't keep his prick out of the Filipino help?
A pat on the back and a "Thank fuck he's straight" no doubt.
GRRRR.... Don't get me started!

Schneewittchen said...

I knew it! And he had to apologise to her for the 'misunderstanding'.

One of my fave comments on the catholic school article was the one that said that since the catholics insist on God being male, then Jesus himself had two dads.

Unknown said...

http://wcfcourier.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/article_695f5db2-ec8a-52df-ade1-5e88ce347d37.html

Somewhat related, an area catholic school teacher was recently awarded $600,000 in his lawsuit against the school after being fired for getting remarried in a civil ceremony without first getting an annulment by the church. Kudos to the Iowa jury members who saw the wrong in that.

Schneewittchen said...

Good grief. Sometimes the Catholic church astounds me in what it thinks God wastes time being annoyed about.

Do the catholic schools in the States get state funding Dawn? One of the real annoyances here with that case is that catholic schools, as in Britain, are partly funded by the state and the state is committed to equality, so it becomes no argument to say that it's ok for them to have their own little prejudices.

Gail said...

I think there's more to that story than the media is letting on. She was on a 1 year contract for someone else's maternity leave. Her contract wouldn't have been renewed anyway. Also, she wouldn't be eligible for a parental leave being on a one year contract.

So, looks like she was denied it and then offered a chance to work from home with pay - which is way better than what she would have gotten with parental leave. She agreed to this some months ago and now is complaining. And maybe it was - maybe the school took the easy way out and offered her the leave with pay and she only just realized the real reason they did it. Or they could have actually been really nice employers. I'm somewhat suspect of the "good" side's story since they first announced she'd been fired and later had to retract.

Gail said...

oh, just read the CBC article. Only read the first day's articles and hadn't yet heard from the school. It was DEFINITELY a case of bigotry.