A Catholic church in Detroit has fired its music director after someone learned that she was married to a woman, and urged the executives to invoke the church's 'morality clause'.
Terry Gonda, 59, found out on Wednesday that she was being fired from her job of 30 years for her relationship.
Last week the Supreme Court ruled that the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination due to gender, also applies to sexual orientation.
However, religious organizations are considered exempt and have historically been granted immunity from lawsuits due to separation of church and state.
Terry Gonda, pictured with her wife Kirsti Reeve, was fired on Wednesday by the church
Gonda married Kirsti Reeve, 51, whom she met in 1994 during a trip to England, in 2011. Reeve moved to the U.S. and converted to Catholicism for Gonda.
'It's a shot to the head from headquarters,' Gonda told the .
'The dehumanization of this is just not right.'
The church, St John Fisher in Auburn Hills, made no secret of why she was being fired.
'I received a call from the Human Resource director for the Archdiocese in response to a communication the diocese received regarding your marital status,' wrote Monsignor Michael LeFevre, the pastor of the church, in a June 12 email.
'When asked, I confirmed that you and Kirsti had informed me of your marital status some five years ago; now the Archdiocese is choosing to activate its morality clause to terminate your employment.'
She was summoned to a meeting on Wednesday and officially terminated.
Gonda tears up her severance letter in front of supporters in Detroit on Wednesday
The couple, who married in 2011, tour bali giá rẻ are pictured praying before the Wednesday meeting to fire her
LeFevre has not commented on the firing.
The Detroit Archdiocese said: 'As a long-standing practice, out of respect for the privacy of those involved, the Detroit archdiocese does not comment on personnel matters.'
Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron has advocated for conversion therapy for homosexuals, urging Catholics in 2017 to pray for 'those with same-sex attraction who do not see the truth and goodness of Christ's call to them, that they might undergo repentance and conversion to receive healing and peace.'
His teachings run contrary to those of Pope Francis, who in 2013 said: 'If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?'
In 2018 the Pope told a gay man: 'God made you this way'.
The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex marriage, however.
