Hundreds of supporters for Barb Webb, a teacher at Marian High
School in suburban Bloomfield Hills, rallied on Sunday at the school
after she posted on Facebook that she had been forced from her job
after she become pregnant “outside the Catholic way."
Webb said she was asked late last month to choose between resigning
or being fired, but decided against leaving voluntarily although she
said the school had offered healthcare for the remainder of the
school year had she chosen to resign. She was 14 weeks pregnant at
the time.
“I feel sickened for my colleagues who are disgusted with this
decision but are forced into silence for fear for their own jobs,”
Webb wrote on her Facebook page in which she detailed her firing,
the latest in a string of such actions involving gay and lesbian
employees at U.S. Catholic schools in recent years.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Sep/08/images/ads/current/gives_you_more_bch_040314.png) School officials could not immediately be reached on Sunday for
comment about the firing, which comes as legal decisions favoring
gay marriage continue to mount in the United States.
Nearly 30 state and federal courts have ruled against same-sex
marriage bans since last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking
down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined
marriage as between one man and one woman.
A U.S. court of appeals is due to rule on same-sex marriage bans in
Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee this month.
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A Facebook group in support of the teacher, “I Stand With Barb
Webb,” grew to more than 3,200 members shortly after its inception
last week when Webb’s post went viral. Current and former students
and parents have urged the school to reverse its decision.
In another case involving a gay school official, a suburban Seattle
Catholic school official was fired in December for violating
religious doctrine by marrying his same-sex partner. He has since
sued for wrongful dismissal.
Last year in California, a Catholic school teacher was fired after
marrying his male partner, and a Catholic teacher in Pennsylvania
told media outlets he was also fired after he applied for a marriage
license with his same-sex partner.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
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