The Russian LGBT organization, Coming Out, has filed a lawsuit with the Kirovsky District Court of St. Petersburg on behalf of a teacher who was fired from her position last year. According to Coming Out, the music teacher of the special education school at St. Petersburg No. 565 was fired by the school's director because of her sexual orientation. Specifically, Coming Out reports that information about her private life was collected from her social networks by an individual who targets teachers that show support for LGBT people, and provided for the director.
The lawsuit demands that the teacher be reinstated at the school, that she be paid wages lost due to the forced absence, and that she be compensated for emotional damages. The official reason for the teacher's dismissal provide by the school cites a part of the Labor Code of Russia (“Committing of an immoral act incompatible with the continuation of the job functions by a worker performing educational duties”).
Coming Out lawyer, Ksenya Kirichenko, said in a statement:
“Under the conditions of the recent years, when homophobic and transphobic groups persecute LGBT teachers, this case is of strategic importance. It is the first known case where an educational worker is officially fired for sexual orientation through the employer's initiative. In other cases LGBT teachers were talked or threatened into quitting 'voluntarily.'"