(ChurchLeaders) Rev. Junia Joplin, who was fired by her former church in Ontario, Canada, after coming out as transgender, has filed a lawsuit against the church for wrongful termination. Joplin pastored at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga and is seeking $200,000 in damages.
“Too often, religion is used as a sort of blanket excuse to justify all kinds of bad behaviour – including human rights violations,” said Joplin in a tweet about the suit. “That way of thinking needs to be challenged.”
Joplin’s suit alleges that Lorne Park Baptist Church broke the Human Rights Code by discriminating on the basis of gender identity and also posits that the church was “unfair” in how it went about deciding to terminate the pastor’s employment. This process included holding several town hall meetings, after which church members voted by a narrow margin to remove Joplin as pastor.