Gay Wycliffe Bible IT Worker Wasn’t Minister, Can Sue for Bias

Wycliffe Associates Inc. must face a gay software developer’s claim that he was fired for marrying a man, because it’s not apparent he served the Bible translation company as a “minister,” a Florida federal judge ruled.

Ricky Ratliff therefore defeated a bid to have his Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act lawsuit dismissed at the pleadings stage, the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida said. Ratliff’s acceptance of a condition in Wycliffe’s employee handbook stating that he was required to “sense a call from God to ministry” wasn’t enough to trigger the First Amendment’s “ministerial ...