Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Dismissed

Here is an actual case that was thrown out due to separation of church and state. (I'm amazed--it does happen!) A gay Lutheran pastor was forced to resign from his teach position at Lutheran High School of Greater Minneapolis, affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in 2000 when officials learned he was gay. Suing for discrimination under Minnesota's Human Rights Act, the state Court of Appeals recognized that religious organizations are exempt when hiring employees for faith-based assignments (most employers are prohibited from discrimiating based on sexual orientation).

Roger Franzen was ordained in 1976 and married with two daughters. He came out to his family in 1998. When his brother-in-law relayed that information to the church, Franzen was forced to quit in January 2000.

This decision by the court reinforced two 2004 rulings upholding the termination of gay employees by church groups under the state constitution's Freedom of Conscience clause. Hamline United Methodist Church of St. Paul dismissed its bisexual church music director in June 2000 after he refused to apologize for calling a church member homophobic during a conversation in the church parking lot. In 2002, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association fired a lesbian mail clerk who worked for the company for 31 years after coworkers spotted her kissing a woman in a parking lot.