Benedictine University Community Responds to School's Firing of Lesbian Educator

The President of Benedictine University, William Carroll, made quite the splash this week when he justified the termination of a lesbian employee by saying, essentially, that Catholic values deemed it moral to fire LGBT people.
In a statement that went out to the public via the Office of the President, the University stuck to its guns over the termination of Laine Tadlock, a five-year employee with Benedictine University. Tadlock was terminated by the school months after her same-sex wedding announcement appeared in a local paper.
"Benedictine University, as its equal opportunity policy states, does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected group or status, including sexual orientation. It was not Tadlock's orientation, but rather the public disregard for fundamental Catholic beliefs, which was the basis of the University's decisions," the University said.
The moral of the story, at least as far as Benedictine University is concerned, is that so long as gay people never fall in love, never hold the hand of someone of the same-sex, or never go out on a date, they're totally fine. But once they actually start having moments of intimacy with someone of the same gender, well, it's proper and moral to give them a pink slip.
Of course, many students and staff members at Benedictine University, as well as community members in the school's backyard, couldn't disagree more. And they're speaking out in loud and proud ways about the school's egregious termination of Tadlock.
As we mentioned the other day, one coworker of Tadlock's, Maureen Lavin, resigned from the school to protest Tadlock's termination. And a group of students also formed a Facebook page to protest the school's decision to remove Tadlock from the University, with hundreds joining the group. Couple that with the hundreds of emails that have been sent to Benedictine University, and you have a recipe for outrage over a homophobic and poor decision by school officials.
"Seriously something must be done to bring the innocent justice because this is ludicrous," wrote Jennifer Stoker on the Facebook page. "The PR team for BU can say what they like but ultimatums and double standards in a situation aren't the way to handle this. Bigotry even from a religious school is unacceptable. To anyone this looks like homophobia at its best."
Even more folks from the school and the community emailed Change.org with their thoughts, expressing concern, sadness, and deep dissatisfaction with the school. As these students, alums and community members put it, they were taught that Benedictine University valued diversity and respect for all. But now they're not so sure.
"I was just informed by a fellow classmate (also embarrassed by what Benedictine did) of the firing of the employee for stating in a newspaper they got married," wrote one student. "I picked Benedictine University for my studies due to the masters program and that them (Benedictine) having religious values on campus would hopefully make it a BETTER place to be.� I do not discriminate against anyone.� If you are white or black or purple or boy, girl, gay or straight that should not matter.� Didn't GOD say treat others like you would want to be treated?� Love ALL above everything else?"
"I am a senior at the Benedictine University Lisle campus, and I agree that it is outrageous for them to fire someone because of a basic quality of who they are.� I have been raised Catholic from birth, and I am a Conservative, but even I can't believe they would do something that intolerant," said another student. "I'm just sorry my tuition is supporting bigotry."
And an alum who graduated recently wrote to say that he, too, was disappointed by the decision to terminate Tadlock. "For the record, I am not a supporter of gay marriage (not for any religious reasons) but sexual orientation should not be a criteria when assessing an employee's performance. It's a very bad move from Benedictine University," he wrote.
Current students, alums, conservative students and more liberal students have all condemned the actions of Benedictine University in this case. Shouldn't that be a red flag that maybe the University really screwed up?
If you haven't sent Benedictine University a message yet asking them to reverse their decision to terminate Tadlock, please do so here. And if you're a community member, student, alum, or Catholic in Springfield, Illinois who finds the actions by Benedictine to be beyond egregious, send us a note at lgbtwriters@change.org.� We'll keep the quotes anonymous if you'd like. You can also join the Facebook page, organized by students at Benedictine University, right here.
Photo credit: Benedictine University Facebook

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