The security officer at an all-girls Catholic high school in suburban Detroit was fired in mid-October after she acknowledged she is a lesbian.
Charlene Genther, a campus safety officer at Marian High School since 2001, is the author of the new autobiography, Badge 3483: A True Story, in which the 55-year-old chronicles her experiences as one of the first female police officers to patrol Detroit in the late 1970s. The book also details sexual harassment she endured during her 15-year run on the Detroit Police Department.
Genther, who lives in suburban Royal Oak, told The Detroit News that Sister Lenore Pochelski, the school’s president, fired her because her lifestyle ‘did not go along with teachings of the Catholic Church.’ The Catholic Church does not approve of gay activity.
The firing represents ‘bold-faced anti-gay discrimination,’ Jeffrey Montgomery of the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based gay-rights organization told The News.