North Shore college loses local contract as it tries to discriminate against lesbians, gays

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll has terminated Gordon College's contract to manage the city-owned Old Town Hall over its efforts to continue sucking at the federal teat even if the president signs an executive order banning discrimination against gays and lesbians. In a letter to the college president, Driscoll writes:

I am truly disappointed in the stance you have taken, which plainly discriminates against the rights of LGBT individuals, both on and off campus. These actions fly in the face of the City of Salem’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance, which prohibits our municipality from contracting with entities that maintain discriminatory practices. While I respect your rights to embed religious values on a private college campus, religious freedom does not afford you the right to impose those beliefs upon others and cannot be extended into a publicly owned facility or any management contract for a publicly owned facility, like Old Town Hall. Moreover, I hope you realize how hurtful and offensive these “behavioral standards” are to members of the greater Salem LGBT community, some of whom are Gordon alumni, staff and/or students.

In financial terms, the move probably won't hurt the college much, since the city had already been scheduled to take over the facility at the end of August, the Salem News reports.