Catholic Teacher Fired For Plans To Marry Gay Partner Of 20 Years

In a letter earlier this month, a popular music teacher at St. Ann Catholic School in Missouri told students' parents of "my joyful news, and my sad news." The good news was that Al Fischer had plans to soon marry his partner of two decades in New York, one of six states in the union where same-sex marriage is legal. The bad news, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was that after four years, "I can't be your music teacher anymore."

When church officials learned of Fischer's plans to wed his male partner, they told him that he had to leave his post in three weeks -- on the day of the couple's planned wedding and 20th anniversary together. Fischer's partner, Charlie Robin, posted on Facebook that Fischer was being fired "for marrying a man, in another state, even though in the state of Missouri we will continue to be just good friends."