Court rules Catholic school wrongfully fired gay substitute

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a gay substitute teacher was wrongfully fired by a Roman Catholic school after he announced in 2014 that he was going to marry his longtime partner.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn ruled Friday that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Charlotte violated Lonnie Billard’s federal protections against sex discrimination.

The ruling says Billard posted about his upcoming wedding in October 2014, and was informed by an assistant principal several weeks later that he no longer had a job with the school.

The defendants said they fired Billard not because he was gay, but because he engaged in advocacy.