Quote from: Deborah on December 07, 2015, 06:15:34 AM
If the religious institutions don't want to be a part of America then their federal funding and tax exemptions should be eliminated.
Agreed.
Where I live, religious schools have to follow the law like any other school with respect to admissions, hiring teachers and staff, and so on. They also have to follow the curriculum of public schools, but they're allowed to either swap or supplement (not sure which, it has changed a few times) the religion, world view and ethics class (which is "secular" in its point of view) with their own content, but the students still need to know about other religions etc. Oh, and if a school, no matter how religious, refused to teach evolution and/or insisted on teaching creationist/ID nonsense as if it were science, they would be forced to close. Religious affiliation doesn't excempt a school from the public/common curriculum. They even have to do sex-ed like any other school. So yes, Catholic schools here teach teens how to use condoms. And I'm not even sure they see a problem with it, to be honest - sensible, since there isn't one.
I think perhaps that religion teachers (in religious schools) could be fired for not living in accordance with the religion the school is affiliated with, but a math or language teacher would have the same antidiscrimination protection as in any public school. The same goes for people who work in churches - only people in so-called "consecrated offices" and to some degree catechists can be discriminated against for being LGBT. So an accountant or even the bishop's secretary would have antidiscrimination protection in place if they were fired for being in a gay relationship. This could be circumvented by using priests in those positions, but except for priests sometimes being used as secretaries (handy since they can then also function as spokesperson if media calls, and look fancy on pictures with their collar and all), most churches have accepted the fact that yes, gay people are fully able to do office jobs even in churches.
And guess what? Despite some debate (which was nothing compared to the ragnarok this would have caused in the States) when the right to discriminate on basis of being LGBT was limited to "consecrated offices" and catechists (if I remember correctly) for churches, and religion teachers for religious schools, there are no complaints from the churches today. I think even hardcore conservatives see it as reasonable, since the churches are still able to demand adherence to their religion's precepts for religion teachers, and other teachers aren't allowed to influence their students religiously anyways!
Lastly, I don't think I've seen one case of a religious school throwing a tantrum over a transgender student - though to be honest I haven't heard any stories about trans kids in religious schools at all. I guess that either means it hasn't happened yet (small country), or it might have been well handled. My impression is that most religious schools are tolerant of children's backgrounds and identities (and as I said, they're not allowed to discriminate against students anyways), and this is probably partly due to the fact that most religious schools have students from all religions (and often quite a few agnostics/atheists), since parents often choose those schools if their child is being bullied or isn't given enough attention academically or socially in public school. Religious schools often emphasize having a good community and looking after students who need more attention. And when less than half of your student mass (and sometimes less than a third of your teachers!) belongs to your religion, you have to be respectful, since the school wouldn't survive otherwise. And then there's the thing about respecting/loving others since your religion kinda tells you to do so - no matter how much ultraconservatives overlook this, most religious schools here seem to get it.
Obviously, any future kids of mine would be either adopted or conceived by IVF, with two mothers, one or both of whom would be trans, so we'd not exactly be representative of the family situation promoted by the Catholic Church. But I would still seriously consider sending my kid to Catholic school, since diocesan/parish schools here are known for being tolerant and simply having great community. And I'd be very surprised if the school raised an issue at all. I'd be more concerned about some of the Pentecostal schools or conservative Lutheran schools, but even most of those would, I think, be accepting. Only a few schools belonging to fringe organizations would advocate for an increased right to discriminate, and those usually end up having to close anyways because they either discriminate without legal basis or disregard the common curriculum.
