Recently in the suburbs of Seattle, the vice principal of a Catholic high school was fired after word got out that he had married a man. Students and other community members have been protesting at the Seattle Archdiocese, with one woman asking, “Would Jesus believe the discrimination is justified?”

The Archdiocese responded with a statement that supported the school in firing the teacher and said that the school administration was following employee protocol. All teachers and administrators must set an example for their students by following Catholic doctrine, which does not support gay marriage.

According to the New York Times, incidents similar to this are occurring all over the country. Schools in Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, California, Missouri, New York, North Carolina and Illinois have all fired teachers because of their sexual orientation.

In New Jersey, a foreign language teacher was fired in December for obtaining a marriage license so he could marry his partner of 12 years, the same number of years he had worked at the school. He was also an alumnus of the Catholic school and many of his colleagues knew he was gay.

None of these teachers were trying to hide anything about their personal lives, yet they’ve been punished for being open and honest. They aren’t being fired for their poor teaching skills or because of budget cuts. This is about church doctrine taking teachers away from their students because of whom they’ve married, which has absolutely nothing to do with their teaching abilities.

Students go to school to learn, not to witness discrimination. Many of the schools accused of discriminatory firings are also supporters of LGBTQA students.

That sounds a lot like a double standard to me, and the teachers who lost their jobs and the students who are out there protesting probably feel the exact same way.