I’m going to start this post by stating that I live in the U.S.A.. This is relevant because here we supposedly have freedom of religion. Basically, The First Amendment to the “United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which respect an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion….” There is also a clause preventing workplaces from discriminating on a number of factors, one being religion. The exception is if the employer is a religious institution.
Just because the laws say there shouldn’t be any discrimination against religions, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It just means that employers can’t mention your religion when they fire you for it. I’m pretty sure I have been fired for my religion at least twice in my life. It could have been more than that, but when I get fired because I’m “not a good fit” with a school district, yet they kept a teacher who literally held a student forcibly against a wall and lied about his knowledge of the subject matter he was supposed to be teaching, it’s pretty clear there was something off about their explanation of my firing.
Why is this coming up now? I was chatting with my husband the other day. He couldn’t understand why I enjoyed watching The Good Witch. I explained that not only is it the most accurate portrayal of Paganism that I’ve seen on TV, but also that I have a dream of one day of moving somewhere and finally being accepted for who I really am, Paganism and all. My husband flat out told me that it would never happen. I held back my tears and told him I needed time to myself. He assumed it was for another reason and I let him. When I got there, I cried. I cried for all of the times that I have had to move. I cried because he had almost dashed my hopes that it was possible to be accepted in a small town for being Pagan.
While I have gotten good at hiding it from my employers over the past 5 years or so, my son will be starting pre-K in the district I work in before I get tenure. I had a choice. I could hide my religion from my son or I can live my truth at home and hope that when the time comes, I will have been there long enough that they will overlook it. I refuse to hide who I am from my son, so that’s the option I’m going for right now.
Having to hide who I am in order to get (and keep) a teaching job really hurts. It’s not like I would ever teach my students about my religion. I just want to be able to wear a pentacle to work without worrying about being fired. I want to be able to take my holidays off of work without fearing that I will lose my family’s sole source of income.
It really pisses me off when I see some of my Christian friends complain that there is a “war on Christmas” because people say “Happy Holidays”. Really!? Christmas is a national fucking holiday! Or when they complain that they’re being discriminated against because they can’t pray in schools. Uh, actually, the students can. They just can’t have it be led or required in any way by the school or any adult. Not to mention if I had a dollar for the number of times someone on the Pagan Parenting group that I’m part of complained about the promotion of religion by someone at their school, I would be rich.
I’m just sick of feeling like this. I’m sick of hiding who I am. I’m sick of worrying about losing my job if I do anything to even hint at being Pagan. The gays had their chance at rights. They’re working on transgender rights now. I just wish there was something that I could do. But there’s already a law that’s supposedly protecting me. It just doesn’t. Please comment and tell me that there’s hope. I want to know that there are some open Pagans out there — preferably in small towns and teaching positions, that are actually accepted for who they are.
