Watch: Longtime Catholic School Music Teacher Axed after Parent Digs Up His Husband's Obit

A longtime music teacher at a Catholic school in Louisiana says he was fired from his job of two decades after a parent dug up his husband's obituary and sounded the alarm. But his being gay was never really a secret.

People Magazine recounted that 63-year-old Mark Richards lost his husband, John Messinger – who he married in 2014 – five years ago. His employment contract with St. Francis Xavier Catholic School, in Metairie, Louisiana, which was renewed annually since he was first hired in 2003, included a "morality clause" that required staff to refrain from "any personal conduct or lifestyle which would be at variance with, or contrary to the applicable policies of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans" and forbade "engaging in or supporting sexual relations outside of marriage recognized as valid by the Roman Catholic Church, where marriage is understood as being the marriage between one man and woman."

"I signed those pledges with what was always a wink and a nudge since it was not a big secret that I am gay," Richards wrote to parents in an email after his contract was not renewed following the parent notifying the archdiocese.

Moreover, Richards contended in the email, it was part of God's plan for him to be committed to Messinger, who, he explained, "was also a very sick man at the time that needed taking care of, and I knew this fact when we started our life together."

"I figured that God brought us together so that he would have someone to take care of him, which I gladly did for more than twenty years."

Also true for more than 20 years, according to Richards: His sexuality and personal devotion to his husband was an open secret, and administrators simply told him to keep his private life to himself.

But now, Richards says, he's been jettisoned from the job he loved "for 'lying' on his contract about the morality clause."

Richards explained that "the way I see it, if I had been married to a woman and there was an obituary, this parent would've never brought it to the attention of the archdiocese."

"This would not have happened. So I think it's rooted in homophobia."

But the parent who purportedly engaged in the opposition research against the music teacher doesn't seem to represent a majority; another parent started a petition to reverse Richards' firing, People noted, and that petition now has the support of nearly 5,000 signatories.

One parent summed the sentiment that Richards did his job, and should not have been axed for his personal life. Said Rick English, "He's there to teach music and that's what he did," according to local newspaper the Times-Picayune.

Local NBC affiliate WDSU reported that parents "love this school and church, but they say change is needed."

English, who also spoke with the news channel, called the treatment of Richards "shocking."

Other parents called the firing "unfair" and an assault on "human dignity," with one parent, Kristen Giefer, telling the news channel her children "had tears in their eyes" at the teacher's firing. Giefer called Richards' firing "unfair," and denounced it as an assault on "human dignity."

"This is a hard day to be Catholic," another parent, Katheryn Lee, lamented to the news channel.

Richards is now looking for his next gig. Meanwhile, he holds his head high. "There's no reason for me to slink away with my tail between my legs," the music teacher told the Times-Picayune. "If I can make things better for the next gay teacher, then I need to speak out."

To watch WDSU news clips on the story, follow this link.