Sad story today by Amy Gaff in the San Francisco Gate about Robin McGehee being asked by St. Helen's Catholic School of Fresno, CA to render her resignation as President of Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).
The school told McGehee that they wanted her to resign because she spoke at a candlelight vigil for the "No on Prop 8" efforts that had been defeated. Father Salvador Gonzalez, Jr., told her that because of her visibility at the vigil, which was seen in direct opposition to the Catholic church's position on Prop 8, she was being forced to resign.
McGehee, whose five-year-old son Sebastian, attends St. Helen's has been a very active and involved parent, helping the school in a variety of ways, including a substantial amount of fundraising. McGehee is partnered and shares parenting responsibilities with two gay dads. Why, would such a family choose a Catholic school to enroll their child?
"We were very upfront and never hid the fact that we were a two-dad, two-mom family," McGehee says. "We explained that we're a nontraditional family and we wanted to make sure the school was comfortable with that and that they would support us being involved with the school."
...
McGehee says she read the school's policies before sending their son there. "I read very carefully every piece of information and contract that came from the school and we also operated openly as gay parents even before enrolling Sebastian," McGehee says. "Our son would have never been enrolled there had we been informed anything differently than their handbook states: the school serves to 'be a witness to the love of Christ for all. The mission of St. Helen's School is to provide a teaching and learning environment in which the dignity of all is respected.' The school would not be able to find one document that we signed that clearly stated that we were not accepted or allowed to be involved as parents."
To be honest, I'm having a hard time getting onboard with all the "Let's be post-partisan and hold hands and sing 'Kumbayha' together" sentiment. Were I elected President, I'd surely have asked the Senate to bring me the head of Joe Lieberman (metaphorically, not literally, please don't report me to the Secret Service).
That said, I recognize, diversity is the cornerstone of a great democracy. And it applies to tactics and opinions, as well as orientation and skin color.
And even as an atheistic I can say, "God bless those people who want to go on the front lines and talk with the people I consider the Christian Taliban." They certainly are providing a valuable service that I don't have the stomach to perform.
So, I find it very sad that members of our community, who actively reach out and try to find common ground with the community of faith, find themselves marginalized and punished in this way for mere disagreement. It's a shame that for all her hard work, for all the friends she made, for all the respect she'd earned, the school still so unceremoniously kicked her to the curb.
Shame on St. Helen's.