EDUCATION
Gay Catholic School Teacher Fired in Queens
Brooklyn Diocese terminates music teacher for marrying his partner
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
The Brooklyn Diocese is
under fi re after a gay
music teacher at a Catholic
Church in Queens
was terminated for getting married
to another man.
Matthew LaBanca, a former music
teacher at St. Joseph’s Catholic
Academy in Astoria and music director
at Corpus Christi Church in
Woodside, said he was fi red from
his job in mid- October after offi
cials discovered he married his
husband, Rowan Meyer, in August.
In response to questions from Gay
City News, the Brooklyn Diocese
said LaBanca’s marriage violated
contractual obligations.
“His contract has been terminated
based on the expectations
that all Catholic school and academy
personnel, and ministers of
the Church, comply with Church
teachings, as they share in the
responsibility of ministering
the faith to students,” noted the
statement, which was attributed
to St. Joseph Catholic Academy
and Corpus Christi Church. “In
his case, it has been determined
that he can no longer fulfi ll his
obligations as a minister of the
faith at either the school or the
parish. Despite changes to New
York State law in 2011 legalizing
same-sex marriage, Church law
is clear. We wish Mr. LaBanca
only the best in his future endeavors.”
Over the weekend, LaBanca
fi red back at the church’s decision
to terminate his employment, saying
they hesitated for over a month
before fi nally pulling the plug on
his job.
“A Diocesan committee of highranking
offi cials met for almost six
weeks to discuss the fate of my employment
and to answer the question,
‘Should Matthew be allowed
to remain at his jobs?’ LaBanca
said in a video posted to YouTube
on October 22. “The answer turned
out to be no.”
LaBanca told Gay City News that
the Brooklyn Diocese fi red him —
not school leadership — even as
Matthew LaBanca, a gay Catholic school teacher, was terminated by the Catholic Church after marrying
his husband.
the diocese cited the school in the
statement they put out.
“If anything, the school was trying
to get me to stay,” LaBanca
told Gay City News. “It’s my understanding
that they were in my corner,
that they were rooting for me
left, right, and center.”
He added, “The fact that I wasn’t
instantly removed, it tells me that
there’s room for movement on this
issue.”
After LaBanca lost his job, he
said the church offered him a severance
package requiring him to
sign a “gag order” prohibiting him
from speaking out about the incident.
LaBanca refused the deal,
came forward with his story, and
watched the community rally
around his cause.
“It’s diffi cult to lose your jobs,
lose your employment, lose your
health insurance, and lose your
daily community life,” LaBanca
told Gay City News. “It has also
been very humbling and moving
to see masses of people rally to my
support. ”
Queens City Councilmember
Danny Dromm — a former schoolteacher
— has penned a letter to
the City Council denouncing the
incident.
“Anti-gay discrimination is real
MATTHEW LABANCA
and tremendously hurtful especially
when it’s done by the bishop
of the church where you are a
faithful member,” Dromm wrote in
a letter to the City Council. “If you
are as disgusted as I am, I urge you
not to attend the bishop’s events,
and I urge the Council to consider
whether we want to contribute to
this discrimination by continuing
to fund the Catholic Charities of
Brooklyn.”
In an interview with Gay City
News, Dromm ripped Bishop Nicholas
DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese
as “extreme.” In 2011, Dromm
said the Brooklyn Diocese leader
banned offi cials who voted for
marriage equality from speaking
at Catholic churches or schools.
“This is extreme right-wing philosophy
that most Catholics don’t
believe in,” Dromm said. “Their
moral authority at this point is
truly undermined. My heart goes
out to LaBanca, and I will support
him and do whatever I can
to help him fi nd justice and seek
peace.”
Other city lawmakers have also
stepped up to support LaBanca,
including Keith Powers of Manhattan,
who is urging the Brooklyn
Diocese to reverse the fi ring.
“As a product of Catholic schools,
I couldn’t be more disappointed
with the decision to fi re a teacher
over the decision of who they
choose to marry or love,” Powers
wrote on Twitter.
While laws in New York and the
US protect against anti-LGBTQ
discrimination in the workplace,
religious institutions have often enjoyed
exemptions — but not across
the board. In North Carolina earlier
this year, a federal court ruled in
favor of a gay Catholic school substitute
teacher who was fi red after
he got married to another man. In
that case, US District Judge Max
O. Cogburn, Jr., ruled that a Catholic
School violated Title VII of the
1964 Civil Rights Act by fi ring the
substitute teacher. The court concluded
that religious exemptions
in Title VII were not intended to
give cover to religious institutions
from complying with Title VII’s ban
on discrimination because of sex,
but rather to allow them to prefer
people of their faith in hiring practices.
Like LaBanca, the substitute
teacher in that case was Catholic.
Furthermore, the judge in that
case explained that the substitute
teacher did not fall within the
scope of a religious exemption because
he was not tasked to teach
religion.
LaBanca, who has appeared on
several TV and Broadway shows,
said he plans to write a play about
his experience, noting that his
story can have an even larger impact
if it’s “artistically expressed.”
LaBanca said he is open to returning
to the classroom if the Catholic
Church becomes more inclusive of
the LGBTQ community.
“If they were to ask me back to
my jobs and rethink their stance
on discrimination, I would go, and
I would take the jobs,” LaBanca
said. “I would do it not only to restore
my livelihood, obviously, but
because I think that it could act as
a beacon of hope and possibility
that you could be gay, married and
Catholic.”
He added, “You don’t have to be
forced to choose between any of
them.”
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