There is this other question about the same subject but it is applicable to the United States. In this question I want to ask about UK employment laws.
This is in consideration of the United Kingdom employment equality law, about which the Wikipedia page says:
As an integral part of UK labour law it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because they have one of the "protected characteristics", which are, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
In this case I was looking at articles such as this one about a 2012 court case against the Catholic Church in UK, in which the solicitor Tracey Emmott (of Emmott Snell) is quoted as saying:
"The relationship between a bishop and a priest of a Roman Catholic diocese has many of the hallmarks of an employment relationship, and therefore it is right and proper that the church should be held legally accountable for abuse by its priests."
According to above statement it seems that at least in some cases the position of a priest with the parent church is viewed as an "employment relationship". What I am curious about is what the UK employment law would say about the relationship in cases where a gay priest decides to "come out". In this kind of situation, is the employment of the priest protected by UK law, or not?