2/16/94
LaGrange, GA – Detective Marc Clay, a member of the Police Department of LaGrange, Georgia, was suspended by Captain Randy Dye, Chief George Yates, and Lt. Barbara Price for refusing to remove the ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday. Despite the fact that none of Clay’s co-workers registered a complaint, Clay was suspended on the claim that his ashes hindered the workplace. After the league contacted superiors in the Police Department, the mayor and members of the town council, Clay received his back-pay plus another holiday to replace the one he’d lost.
2/22/94 – 2/24/94
Omaha, NE – Christine Wilson spent three days in court testifying in her case against US West which fired her after she refused to remove a pro-life button bearing the words “Stop Abortion” and “They’re Forgetting Someone” and the picture of an unborn baby at 18 weeks of development. Mrs. Wilson’s co-workers said the button upset them and disrupted the workplace.
4/12/94
Albany, NY – David Hubicki, a temporary employee at the New York State Department of Civil Service, had a 3″x 5″ picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at his workplace. A supervisor, Imogene Bessette, told him in threatening terms to remove the picture. She claimed a department-wide rule excluded the display of religious symbols in the workplace. The league demanded to see a copy of the rule and in short order the matter was dropped and Hubicki was allowed to keep the picture on his desk.
6/1/94
Pittsburgh, PA – In the office of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an openly homosexual writer was describing the First Holy Communion of a relative He mentioned that some of the girls wore ivory or cream colored gowns instead of white. He then publicly said that they looked like “whore brides of Christ from Babylon.”
6/28/94
New York, NY – Fr. Ralph LaBelle, the Catholic chaplain at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, called to report an incident at the hospital. On June 28, the Executive Assistant to President Dr. Speck (a Roman Catholic) made an unannounced inspection of LaBelle’s room on the 2nd floor. In the room she noticed a bed which had been bought and paid for years ago by the Catholic community to provide for priests on “night duty.” She ordered the bed removed commenting she didn’t want women or young boys brought here.” Despite the fact that the bed was not hospital property, it was to be discarded. (The Protestant chaplain’s room on the 3rd floor of the hospital still had a bed in it.) Ultimately, the hospital replaced the bed (which is now in storage) with a “hide away” couch bed. Dr. Speck’s Executive Assistant has since denied making any comments about “women and young boys.”
9/19/94
Phoenix, AZ – The league registered its complaint with the City of Phoenix’s Equal Opportunity Commission and the Arizona Appeals Board on behalf of Ms. Beverly Rutt. In June, 1993, Ms. Rutt quit her job at Specialty Graphics as a result of sexual harassment; much of it aimed at her because she is a Catholic. The harassment lasted several months, during which time Ms. Rutt, known to all employees as a proud Catholic, was subjected to a steady stream of sexually explicit jokes, some of which were gruesome in nature. Four-letter-words were frequently uttered over the loud speaker, all in the name of humor. After Ms. Rutt left Specialty Graphics, she applied for unemployment compensation which her company denied on the grounds that a pro-life picture (of an aborted fetus) had harassed fellow employees. The case is now pending.
