Canary Islands: School teacher fired after revealing same-sex marriage
A Lanzarote school teacher has been fired, after revealing in a newspaper that he is married to a man.
In a letter to newspaper El País, Luis Alberto González Delgado had written: “I married a man in 2012.
“This wouldn’t be of any importance if it wasn’t for the fact that I work as a religion teacher in two public secondary schools in Lanzarote.
“At the end of the year I got married, I thought it was opportune, for reasons of transparency, that I reveal my status to the bishop.”
He added in the letter that after revealing his sexuality and marriage to the bishop, he had initially been allowed to retain his job.
He wrote: “Either the bishop of the Canaries doesn’t believe the subject is important, or he has a new approach to the subject in his jurisdiction. In both cases, this is good news.”
However, after publication of the letter, the teacher of 15 years was fired after all, and told his services would no longer be required.
He told the newspaper that he was unsurprised by the decision, because his lifestyle put him in conflict with the church.
Mr Delgado wrote, however, that he does not plan on leaving the church.
Jesús Generelo of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELTGB) said: “This pact between the Catholic Church and the State is shameful. [School] spaces for learning, not indoctrination.”
