Monday, June 11, 2012

He Got The Job, But Then They Asked If He Was Gay ....

Jonathan Zeng, a music teacher, has accused the Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy of changing their minds about hiring him because he's gay.
Zeng says Cincinnati Hills, a nondenominational Christian school, offered him a teaching position last week, several days of interviews and observing him while he led a third-grade class. But then, just hours after he accepted the job, Zeng says that school officials called back with just one more question.
"Are you gay?" they wanted to know.
Zeng asked why the question was being asked ,and says school officials told him that Cincinnati Hills has a policy against employing teachers who live as homosexuals because they would be around children and the school believes in the sanctity of marriage.
And then there was no job.
Zeng wrote a letter of protest describing the conversation to the school’s board of trustees, saying the actions of the school were "very painful.”
Cincinnati Hills officials declined to answer questions about the incident and wouldn't even confirm whether Zeng had been offered a job and then lost it. School spokesbigot, Liz Bronson, also would not say whether the school has a policy of not employing The Gays, and, instead, read a written statement by school officials:
“CHCA keeps confidential all matters discussed within a candidate’s interview. We’re looking into this matter, although the initial information we have seen contains inaccuracies. We will not be discussing individual hiring decisions or interviews. “
Of course, she failed to name any of the "inaccuracies."
For the time being, Jonathan Zeng teaches part-time at Corryville Catholic, and has taught at schools or as an opera outreach worker for about five years, but he is still seeking full-time work and performance opportunities.
Sad to say, but federal laws probably won’t protect Zeng from job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but Scott E. Knox, a Cincinnati lawyer who specializes in employment and discrimination law, says a a local ordinance might.
Cincinnati has a Human Rights ordinance, which went into effect in 2006, makes it a criminal violation for Cincinnati employers to discriminate against someone who is LGBT. 
On the down side, the ordinance has not yet been used in court yet, and exempts religious institutions, though Know says it might still apply to a private school. It would depend how the school obtained its tax-exempt status, either as a school or as a place of worship. The local protections against discrimination apply to a school, even a private one.
Federal anti-discrimination laws protect people from employment discrimination based on age, race or ethnicity, disability and gender, but does not protect based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA], which has been introduced in nearly every US Congress in the last eighteen years, would protect workers in companies larger than 15 employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but it has not been passed.
One more way the government and the GOP controlled Congress are failing to protect all Americans from discrimination.
Hopefully, this will change, one day, soon, and the Jonathan Zengs of the United Sates will never again be asked about their sexual orientation, and never again be fired or denied employment, because of it.

8 comments:

  1. That school isn't worthy of his teaching expertise. He needs to go somewhere else

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  2. And you know that school is not questioning the ones it really should. The felons, child molesters and abusers.....

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  3. "the school believes in the sanctity of marriage." So there's no divorced people on the staff? That seems unlikely.

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  4. i wonder what the outcome would of been had he declined to answer?

    it seems like asking someone to disclose their sexual orientation should be something you shouldn't have to answer for or to anyone except the person(s) you are sleeping with. end of discussion, but hey, i'm just an athiest who taught catholic school. what do i know?

    xxalainaxx

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  5. There's a reason why those of us in Ohio refer to Hamilton County / Cincinnati as "our corner of Kentucky". Cincinnati has many fine people, but the number of assholes outweighs the good people everyday.

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  6. Those bastards are afraid a teacher like this in their school system may protect students like Brandon Elizares, not to mention, he may mentor the rest.

    I wish I were an internet billionaire, I would employ each and every one of these people (another story coming out of Minn. about a incredible straight teacher being fired for being supportive of the LGBT community)
    in a job where they could reach as many young people as possible.

    That would bring about the change this damaged country needs.

    tim

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  7. I go back to my same fight over and over, do these people really believe that this man is going to shoot out gay vibes and make the students gay or will his lifestyle look so cool that straight students will decide to never marry. I know that a private institution can do and ask what they want (and they do) but at some point someone on the staff has to become a little more intelligent, right?

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  8. UGHHHHH! These people! They think that all gay people are in a constant state of sexual frenzy and need to copulate 24/7 with anything and anyone including children.

    I once had a neighbor who was freaking about about the fact that her daughter was going away to college and gave her the big speech ... "the gay people are going to want you to be gay, the druggies are going to want you to do drugs," etc., et al. I actually said to her "ARE YOU FOR REAL?" I couldn't help myself. Let's just say, she suddenly stopped being a "friendly" neighbor. She finally moved .... probably to some red state where she could be amongst her own. Ugh.

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