Knowing that I had some thoughts on the matter, SWT asked me to write up a guest post about Felix Ngole's ongoing legal case for the official Social Work Tutor blog. It was published earlier this evening.
Here is a sample:
I’ve long felt conflicted by Ngole’s situation. I am an American social worker with over 25 years of social work and direct care experience. I’ve worked with a wide variety of clients, co-workers, and colleagues. I’m also an openly gay married man, who foster parented with my now husband for years. We eventually became adoptive parents through that same system. I’m keenly aware of how biased beliefs can slow down the licensing process for prospective foster parents who are LGBTQ, or even completely derail the process. Fortunately, my husband and I experienced few of those bias-related speed bumps.
That said, I cringed when I first read about Felix’s removal from his master’s degree program and following his initial appeals court loss. It’s too easy to see this story as a fight between martyred Christian professionals and tyrannical liberal establishments backed up by thought-policing gays...
How ironic is it that Ngole’s blanket support for Kim Davis might have made himself an international image of anti-gay bias within the social work profession? Personally, I worry about someone who supports public officials turning away LGBTQ customers and constituents. How does it look from a social justice perspective when one believes that one group of taxpayers should travel to other counties in order to access the same resources that other taxpayers easily receive near home? Economics alone, some people just don’t have the resources to spend on needless trips elsewhere. But that is what Ngole advocated when he supported Kim Davis.
From reading news articles on this subject and watching interviews with Ngole himself, his arguments have shifted to a concern that his social media presence should not be held against him professionally. If Ngole’s social media presence was largely limited to an online debate about Kim Davis, I would be more agreeable to giving him a chance to expand professionally within the social work graduate program. But it’s not limited to Kim Davis.
Felix Ngole and his wife have published a book about his legal case and his public stand against same-sex families- Felix Ngole: Behind the Scenes: The Story of One Social Worker’s Battle with His University. He has a public Facebook page named after his book which primarily posts critical posts about gay families and trans people, along with other posts about Christian identity and abortion. Both his face and his name have appeared in countless international interviews, where he has reinforced his opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. There is no sign of any willingness to learn, reflect and grow on Felix’s behalf. Instead, his strategy over the past three years has been to double-down on the views that saw him expelled from university in the first place.
Ultimately, I don’t know much about Felix Ngole. But, like Kim Davis, I do worry that his name has become synonymous with bias against LGBTQ people and same-sex marriage.
Social workers encounter LGBTQ people in all corners of our profession, be they colleagues or clients. Given the high profile defense of his views, people Felix interacts with will be well-aware of his feelings on same sex marriage and homosexuality. Should he be allowed to return to university and complete his social work training, his public profile places himself and his employer in a difficult position should he ever be assigned to work on cases involving LGBTQ clients or colleagues.
After all, which gay young person would be happy to have an allocated social worker who believes that homosexuality is an abomination? How could prospective same sex adopters hope for a fair assessment from a social worker who believed they were living in sin? These are questions that Felix Ngole really needs to consider as he awaits the outcome of his latest appeal and, with it, the decision about whether he can move forward with his dream of becoming a professional social worker.
Because, if he can’t even muster the empathy to see how those in my position feel, then I don’t see how he can ever be deemed ‘fit to practice’.You can read much more of my SWT guest post at this link.
And don't forget to comment, both here and at the Social Work Tutor blog!