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SAVINGRACE
Guest
"In a decision being called the first of its kind nationally, a state judge has ruled that an all-girls Catholic school in Milton discriminated against a gay man when it rescinded a job offer after learning he was in a same-sex marriage.
Matthew Barrett accepted a position as food services director at Fontbonne Academy in 2013, but the school withdrew the offer days later after Barrett listed his husband as an emergency contact on an employee form, according to a 21-page court ruling issued Wednesday.
Barrett’s lawyer, Ben Klein of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the decision marks the first time a judge has rejected a religious organization’s assertion that it had a constitutional right not to hire employees because they were spouses in same-sex marriages.
“Marriage equality has been the law of Massachusetts for over a decade and is now the law of the land,” Klein said. “But you can’t have equality if you can get married on Saturday and fired on Monday.”
Several legal experts contacted Thursday by the Globe said they believed the ruling was the first in a legal dispute involving a religious organization and an employee in a same-sex marriage.
Matthew Barrett of Dorchester said Fontbonne Academy in Milton withdrew a job offer within two days after he listed his husband as emergency contact.
“It is the first reported case with regards to a religious institution,” said Brian D. Spitz, an employment lawyer in Ohio whose firm represents clients from the LGBTQ community.
“Sexual orientation is a protected class deserving of the same level of protection as other protected classes,” Spitz said. “If the Fontbonne Academy argued that it was against their religious tenets to hire a woman or a black person, their arguments would be ridiculed as absurd at first look.”
The decision was blasted by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, which called it “a frontal assault on religious freedom” and “an appalling subordination of the First Amendment to the Massachusetts gay rights law.” The organization is an independent group directed by a lay person.
Barrett, 45, who lives in Dorchester, sued Fontbonne in Norfolk Superior Court last year, claiming that the school discriminated against him on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender.
Mary Ellen Barnes, then Fontbonne’s head of school and chief executive, told Barrett that he could not be hired because his marriage to another man was “inconsistent” with Catholic Church teachings, the order said.
“What they did was blatantly wrong, and they violated a Massachusetts law,” Barrett said Thursday in a telephone interview. “They felt that being a Catholic-affiliated school that they can do that legally, and they can’t.”
In his ruling, Judge Douglas H. Wilkins rejected the three defenses the school offered.
“Fontbonne’s discrimination ‘because of’ Barrett’s same-sex marriage is undisputed and, as shown above, amounts to discriminatory intent as a matter of law,” Wilkins wrote.
“It is clear that, because he is male, he suffered gender discrimination when he was denied employment for marrying a person whom a female could have married without suffering the same consequences.”
Fontbonne, a ministry sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, had argued it is entitled to a religious exemption under the state antidiscrimination law.
It also claimed that hiring Barrett would infringe on its constitutional rights because it views his marriage as incompatible with its religious mission."
bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/17/fontbonne/ANcFqZ2bns2r6Et7GSEl7H/story.html
Matthew Barrett accepted a position as food services director at Fontbonne Academy in 2013, but the school withdrew the offer days later after Barrett listed his husband as an emergency contact on an employee form, according to a 21-page court ruling issued Wednesday.
Barrett’s lawyer, Ben Klein of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the decision marks the first time a judge has rejected a religious organization’s assertion that it had a constitutional right not to hire employees because they were spouses in same-sex marriages.
“Marriage equality has been the law of Massachusetts for over a decade and is now the law of the land,” Klein said. “But you can’t have equality if you can get married on Saturday and fired on Monday.”
Several legal experts contacted Thursday by the Globe said they believed the ruling was the first in a legal dispute involving a religious organization and an employee in a same-sex marriage.
Matthew Barrett of Dorchester said Fontbonne Academy in Milton withdrew a job offer within two days after he listed his husband as emergency contact.
“It is the first reported case with regards to a religious institution,” said Brian D. Spitz, an employment lawyer in Ohio whose firm represents clients from the LGBTQ community.
“Sexual orientation is a protected class deserving of the same level of protection as other protected classes,” Spitz said. “If the Fontbonne Academy argued that it was against their religious tenets to hire a woman or a black person, their arguments would be ridiculed as absurd at first look.”
The decision was blasted by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, which called it “a frontal assault on religious freedom” and “an appalling subordination of the First Amendment to the Massachusetts gay rights law.” The organization is an independent group directed by a lay person.
Barrett, 45, who lives in Dorchester, sued Fontbonne in Norfolk Superior Court last year, claiming that the school discriminated against him on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender.
Mary Ellen Barnes, then Fontbonne’s head of school and chief executive, told Barrett that he could not be hired because his marriage to another man was “inconsistent” with Catholic Church teachings, the order said.
“What they did was blatantly wrong, and they violated a Massachusetts law,” Barrett said Thursday in a telephone interview. “They felt that being a Catholic-affiliated school that they can do that legally, and they can’t.”
In his ruling, Judge Douglas H. Wilkins rejected the three defenses the school offered.
“Fontbonne’s discrimination ‘because of’ Barrett’s same-sex marriage is undisputed and, as shown above, amounts to discriminatory intent as a matter of law,” Wilkins wrote.
“It is clear that, because he is male, he suffered gender discrimination when he was denied employment for marrying a person whom a female could have married without suffering the same consequences.”
Fontbonne, a ministry sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, had argued it is entitled to a religious exemption under the state antidiscrimination law.
It also claimed that hiring Barrett would infringe on its constitutional rights because it views his marriage as incompatible with its religious mission."
bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/17/fontbonne/ANcFqZ2bns2r6Et7GSEl7H/story.html
