Nursing Instructor is Suing SPU Alleging He Was Denied Full-Time Employment Because He’s Gay
SEATTLE — A nursing instructor is suing Seattle Pacific University (SPU), alleging he was denied a full-time job because he’s gay.
“The whole thing was pulled out from underneath me,” said Jéaux Rinedahl, who started teaching part-time as an adjunct professor at SPU last year.
Rinedahl, a Christian man who is gay and married to a man, said he loved his job, and when a full-time position in the nursing program opened, he applied right away.
“It was sort of like the answer to a dream,” he said during an interview with KING 5 Monday.
Rinedahl said his superiors at SPU were excited he applied, but then suddenly, he was told he did not qualify.
“That’s when the announcement came, that the reason why I was not (qualified), was because I am not heterosexual, and that’s when I just started to freeze, and just started feeling sick to my stomach,” Rinedahl said.
