Court rules North Carolina Catholic school could fire gay teacher who announced his wedding online

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled a Catholic school in North Carolina had the right to fire a gay teacher who announced a decade ago that he was going to marry his longtime partner. A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Wednesday a lower court’s 2021 ruling against Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. The trial judge had found that the school had violated Lonnie Billard’s employment protections against sex discrimination. But the panel determined Billard fell under a “ministerial exception” concerning employees who perform tasks central to an institution’s religious mission.