A Christian university is being sued because of its stance against employing teachers from the LGBTQ community.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday in Seattle, Washington, students and educators claimed that Seattle Pacific University had broken its fiduciary duty and committed fraud by implementing a religious employment policy that prevented educators in same-sex partnerships from being hired. The lawsuit names the board of trustees’ top officials as the “rogue board,” demands their dismissal from office, and calls for a jury trial.
The complaint claimed that if the policy was changed, the Free Methodist Church, which established the school in 1891, threatened to sever its ties to it. There are two faith leaders on the university’s board of trustees.
The LGBTQ+ community at SPU despises this hiring policy since it forbids the hiring of otherwise qualified LGBTQ+ individuals if they are married to or romantically involved with someone of the same sex.
These males ignore the grave and pervasive harm they continue to cause to the university’s most vulnerable students and employees, specifically BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals.
According to the lawsuit, a black educator who is also a member of the LGBTQ community resigned from the university and gave the policy and the system of whiteness as his reasons.
The lawsuit demands that the school compensate any individuals who were damaged by the LGBTQ policy in addition to calling for the resignation of the board and interim president, Pete Menjares.
The Indiana Supreme Court sided with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ Catholic schools on September 1 after one of the institutions fired a teacher for entering a same-sex marriage. He was unable to do so because of the school’s contract with its professors and the institution’s adherence to religious principles.
