Members of the Morgan County Board of Education in Tennessee who voted against Paul Scarborough, a Director of Schools candidate, because of an article in a local newspaper that stated he would be speaking at a convention of Metropolitan Community Church, a predominately gay church, may have to pay damages for violating Scarborough’s constitutional rights.

According to Scarborough, he was not aware at the time that MCC was a predominantly gay denomination. He was just doing a favor for a friend when he said [he would speak]. When he consulted his calendar and realized he had a conflicting engagement, he called his friend to back out. The friend then asked if he could speak at the convention at a different time, which Scarborough agreed to consider, but ultimately he found he could not accept the invitation.

Unfortunately for Scarborough, however, MCC had sent a news release to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the local newspaper, about its convention plans, announcing that Scarborough, the Morgan County Superintendent, would be a speaker at the conference.

After the news of Scarborough’s speaking plans appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, several members of the Morgan County Board of Education “[decided] that he was putting the public schools’ ‘stamp of approval’ on homosexuality by his actions and had exhibited poor judgment by accepting the invitation in the first place.”

Continue reading about Scarborough v. Morgan County Board of Education in December’s edition of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes.