Was Marie Nixon Fired for Being A Lesbian?

This is a picture of Marie Nixon and her girlfriend Karen Barbour, who have been in a committed relationship for the past seven years.

Nixon claims that she was recently fired from her job as Director of the Blessings From Above Child Day Center in Stuart, Virginia because of her relationship with Barbour. Nixon’s former boss, Mary Beth Roberson, maintains that Nixon was not terminated from the center because of her lifestyle but for a repeated dress code violation; namely a tongue piercing which was against their policy.

In seeking legal counsel for the situation, Nixon claims that the lawyers she has contacted in her area are notably biased against homosexuals and have been unwilling to offer her any advice.

The situation with the Blessings From Above Child Day Center came to my attention when Marie Nixon sought advice through a mutual friend of ours, who had been through a similar situation. I spoke with both women in this matter, Marie Nixon and her former boss Mary Beth Roberson, and listened to each woman’s side of the story.

Marie Nixon told me that when she was laid off from her job at a textile mill she was offered the opportunity to go back to school.

She started with an Associates Degree in Early Childhood Development and is currently working towards a Bachelors Degree to eventually become a teacher. The owner of the Blessings From Above Child Day Center, Mary Beth Roberson, was said to have asked Nixon’s college professor for an employee recommendation. Marie Nixon was one of two women that her professor recommended to Roberson.

Nixon claims the initial interview between her and Roberson went “great” and she was excited to take the job as Director of the Blessings From Above Child Day Center where she began working on January 15th; helping prepare for the center’s opening on March 16th.

Roberson confirmed to me that Nixon was wearing jewelry in her pierced tongue during her interview, at which time she advised Nixon of the school’s policy which did not allow body jewelry to be worn on the premises of the center. Roberson claims that Nixon repeatedly violated this policy after becoming employed at the center, and she frequently had to ask Nixon to remove the jewelry before any children would see it. There are no records of these violations, and Nixon claims that she would arrive with the jewelry in her mouth then remove it before work began. “No parent or child ever saw my tongue piercing” said Nixon. However, to avoid breaking the policy Roberson says that Nixon “would have had to remove the jewelry before exiting her car”.

Nixon claims that she was not aware of a problem with the piercing in her tongue until the day she was terminated which was April 6th.

Here is the letter of termination that was given to Marie Nixon by Mary Beth Roberson:

Nixon claims that she was perplexed to receive the termination letter, and didn’t read the letter itself until after she was done talking with Roberson.

Nixon tells me that Roberson and her husband were waiting for her in the parking lot the morning of April 6th. She says that Roberson handed her the letter and told her she “didn’t think it was working out” because she was “uncomfortable preaching the King James Bible and knowing that (Ms. Nixon) was working there”. Roberson was said to have mentioned that she “didn’t want it around her children”, told Nixon she was relieved of her duties, and then asked for her keys back. I was not able to determine from Roberson whether she actually said that to Nixon or not as she was very hesitant to talk with me on the matter in general.

Marie Nixon says she was perplexed about the termination, because she had already turned in a letter of resignation on March 27th which would have made her last day of employment May 22, 2009.

Roberson did confirm with me that Nixon had in fact submitted a letter of resignation before ultimately being terminated.

Here is the resignation letter that Marie Nixon submitted to the Blessings From Above Child Day Center:

Marie Nixon maintains that she submitted the letter of resignation due to a degrading workplace relationship between her, Mary Beth Roberson, and the Assistant Director of the center after a phone call between Roberson and Nixon on March 13th, where Roberson discovered Nixon’s sexual orientation.

Nixon says she never mentioned her sexual orientation to Roberson because she didn’t think it was an issue and she wanted to maintain professionalism; but on the evening of March 13th Nixon placed a call to Roberson from her home telephone which was listed in the name of Nixon’s girlfriend, Karen Barbour. Roberson asked Nixon who ‘Karen’ was, and Nixon explained her relationship to Barbour at that point.

Nixon claims that Roberson told her she felt that Nixon’s relationship with Barbour was unnatural, and she felt like she was funding homosexuality by employing Nixon.

I was unable to obtain a a statement by Roberson as to whether she claims to have said that or not. Nixon says that at that point she was only thinking about the 28 parents that would be left without day care, since the center was due to open in 3 days from that phone call.

Roberson and Nixon both confirm that for some reason they came to an agreement that Marie Nixon would stay on as Director, until the Assistant Director was trained well enough to become the Director of the Blessings From Above Child Day Center, at which point Nixon would move on.

Both women claim that the solution was their idea, and they also both maintain that each other was responsible for a change in the workplace relationship at work after Nixon’s sexual orientation was revealed.

Nixon claims that after the phone call on March 13th with Roberson, the environment at work changed, and Roberson began to make important decisions regarding the care of children without consulting her. Nixon says she believes that the timing of her termination was because Roberson’s own two children were set to start a schedule which would have put them in contact with Nixon at the center, where their schedules had not allowed them to meet before. I was unable to confirm this with Roberson.

Roberson claims she felt that Nixon was afraid of being fired after Roberson found out that she was a lesbian, but had no such intention of firing Nixon until her performance at work began to decline. Roberson claims she expedited the termination of Marie Nixon after Nixon repeatedly violated the dress code and also what she refers to as “causing strife” in the workplace, namely “turning other employees against our Assistant Director.”

The apparent strife between Nixon and the Assistant Director resulted over a sticker on each woman’s car.

Nixon had a sticker of a rainbow frog on her car, the assistant director had a sticker of the confederate flag. Nixon claims that she was asked to take the sticker off of her car, yet the assistant director was not. Roberson denies the allegation.

After her termination, Nixon found out that Roberson had sent a letter to other staff members of the Blessings From Above Child Day Center which stated that Nixon was “not of good character”.

Here is the letter that Roberson sent to her staff after Nixon’s termination:

Nixon stated to me that she is aware that there is no workplace discrimination law in place in her state that would come to her aid for being terminated based on her sexual orientation. She says that she was disturbed however by the letter that Roberson distributed after her termination and fears that it will affect future employment opportunities she might receive a recommendation for.

Nixon was adamant about the fact that she lives a quiet life and didn’t want anything like this to ever happen. She said she was hesitant to speak out about the issue but wants the Blessings From Above Child Day Center and her former boss, Mary Beth Roberson, to know that “They can’t treat people like this.” Nixon says she will continue to look for an attorney willing to take her case.

She says…

It’s crazy to me that some states are allowing us to marry and other states, like Virginia, are turning a blind eye to the hatred that these people throw at us daily and if this story can open just one important eye then that is worth it to me.

Roberson maintains that Nixon’s termination had nothing to do with her sexual orientation, and that she doesn’t feel she has done anything wrong.

Roberson did express to me that she is in a small town running a small business and didn’t want any negative attention for her center or for Marie Nixon. Roberson said she thought this was a “personal issue” and wanted to say “as little as possible” on the matter. Roberson says that if she was going to fire Marie Nixon for being a lesbian, she would have done it during the March 13th phone call when she first learned of her lifestyle.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.