A Utah teacher and education blogger says he was fired from the Nomen Global Language Center in Provo after writing a blog post about homophones, though he disputes media reports that he was let go for promoting a “gay agenda.”
Self-described “social media specialist and content provider” Tim Torkildson recounted the firing in a personal blog post, which was subsequently picked up by The Salt Lake Tribune and other outlets. According to that account, Nomen Global owner Clarke Woodger was concerned that a post about homophones—words that sound the same but are defined differently—meant the school would be “associated with homosexuality.”
“He called me into the conference room, and he said, ‘We’re going to let you go,’” Torkildson told Newsweek. “[He said] this blog on homophones is the last straw. You can’t be trusted. I can’t trust you to write a regular blog.”
Torkildson denied that he was accused outright of promoting a “gay agenda.”
“No, that’s all been distorted,” he said. “His [Woodger’s] words to me were, ‘Some people might think that a blog on homophones has something to do with homosexuality.’ And that’s as far as he went on that. He said he hadn’t looked the word up, and then he realized what it was. His objection mainly was he thought the students at the school would not understand. And they would become offended or think the school would have some kind of gay agenda.”
