After coming out, an Ontario pastor was sacked, and a transgender person filed a lawsuit against the Baptist church.

A Mississauga, Ont., a pastor who was sacked from a Baptist church after coming out as transgender has filed a wrongful dismissal case, alleging discrimination. Rev. Junia Joplin presented as male when she first took over as head pastor at Lorne Park Baptist Church in 2014, and she continued to do so until she came out to the congregation in a live-streamed sermon last June.

Joplin claims that after her announcement, she received support from some members of the congregation as well as other Baptist churches and organizations in a statement of claim that has yet to be challenged in court. The claim, however, alleges that in the days that followed, the church in Mississauga, Ont., arbitrarily suspended her from her duties and set no date for her return.

According to the lawsuit, Joplin was then exposed to an "unfair procedure" in which congregants questioned her in a series of virtual town halls and voted to terminate her job in July 2020. Lorne Park Baptist Church did not reply immediately to a request for comment. In a statement last year, the church stated that Joplin was sacked for "theological reasons."

In an interview this week, Joplin stated that her firing and the manner in which it was handled had left her with "a kind of dread surrounding church work and church life" that she had never felt before. Joplin expressed her hope that the lawsuit will help make Canada a more welcoming and safe place for trans individuals.