When You Sign A Contract…

…You do not get to pick what parts of the contract you will honor, you have to go by the terms and conditions of the whole contract.

One of the immediate results of the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling was Gordon College requested to be exempt from President Obama’s Executive Order banning discrimination against gender identity and sexual orientation. The Washington Post reported that,

A small Christian college in Massachusetts has come under fire for petitioning President Obama to be exempted from an order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating based on a person’s sexual orientation.

Gordon College, which has about 2,100 students, was the lone institution of higher learning to join a slew of religious organizations and charities in signing a letter to Obama that asked for an exemption.

The fallout from the letter was swift and leads us to signing contracts…

On Wednesday, the mayor of Salem, Mass. dropped the city’s contract with Gordon College to manage its Old Town Hall facility, citing a non-discrimination ordinance.

“While I respect your right 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 public owned facility, like Old Town Hall,” wrote Mayor Kim Driscoll.

It seems like the college does not think it has to follow the contract they signed. When the spotlight fell on them, the fact that their student handbook forbids homosexual practice and extra-marital sex was pointed out. Salem’s non-discrimination ordinance prohibit discrimination on sexual orientation and marital status.

The Boston Globe quoted the mayor as saying,

Mayor Kimberley Driscoll, who also cited the college’s longstanding policies prohibiting gay activities among students, said Gordon’s policies violate a city ordinance prohibiting Salem from contracting with entities that discriminate.

But she said it would be “even more troubling” to have the city do business with “an institution that enables, and now advocates for, discrimination against the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] community.”

“As mayor, I most certainly cannot let that stand,” Driscoll wrote in a letter to D. Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon, located in nearby Wenham.
[…]
In her letter, Driscoll wrote that Salem has had “a long and positive relationship with Gordon College over the years” and she was saddened to cut ties with the school.

But she told Lindsay, “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.”

I expect that there will be an out-crying from the religious right claiming that their religious freedom to discriminate is being stepped upon.