Civil rights commissioner: Lynn wrong on Gordon

LYNN – A federal civil rights commissioner has written a letter to Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy asserting that the school committee discriminated against Gordon College students and its president by severing ties with the college over its stance concerning gays and lesbians.”The Lynn School Committee is a governmental entity, and thus bound by the First Amendment,” the letter from Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, reads. “Religious institutions like Gordon College are permitted to discriminate on the basis of religion, which encompasses both belief and conduct. The Lynn School Committee is not so permitted. The School Committee is violating the First Amendment rights of Gordon College students and President Michael Lindsay.Kennedy said the letter – albeit the opinion of one person – mirrors her concerns.”Right now, it would appear that the letter is nothing more than an expression of his personal opinion,” Kennedy said in a text message Wednesday. (Kennedy, whose position as mayor makes her the chairman of the school committee, was one of three members who voted against severing ties with Gordon College). “However, the concerns he raises mirror the concerns I have about the school committee vote.”Gordon College came under scrutiny last summer in a dispute concerning President Barack Obama’s executive order to extend job protection for gays employed by federal contractors. Gordon College President Dr. Michael Lindsay was among the signatories of a letter urging Obama to include an exemption to the executive order for religious institutions. Obama eventually included the exemption.The controversy for Gordon, however, had just begun. Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll ended the college’s contract to manage the city’s town hall. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) began a review of the school and whether “the inclusion of ?homosexual practice’ as a forbidden activity in (Gordon’s) Statement on Life and Conduct was contrary to the Commission’s Standards for Accreditation.” And the Lynn School Committee voted 4-3 to cut ties with the college.The letter from Kirsanow evokes one of the major points of contention in the controversy; whether a letter reflects the view of the signatory and/or of his or her affiliated institution.Although written on letterhead of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Kirsanow opens with the line:”I write as one member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole.”Lindsay made a similar statement about the letter that started the controversy. Lindsay signed the letter with his name and, beneath that, his title as president of Gordon College.”(Organizational affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.),” reads the final line of the July letter, below all the signatures.School committee member Charlie Gallo, who made the motion to sever ties with Gordon, said Kirsanow “fundamentally does not understand the crux of the motion – that we severed ties on the basis of the intent to discriminate by Gordon.”Gallo noted that the motion (which Kirsanow quotes in the letter) specifies the motion is “on the basis of (the college’s) intent to discriminate against the LGBTQ community in its hiring practices, but not on the basis of its religious beliefs or behavioral code of conduct.”Kirsanow asserts this is “utterly disingenuous,” as Gordon’s hiring practices are based on its religious beliefs and behavioral code of conduct.Gallo disagreed.”Gordon has every right to believe what they want to believe,” Gallo said. “Once they cross from belief to intent to discriminate, they crossed the line.”But Gallo, like the others, noted the letter was sent by a single individual.”The letter was sent not by commission itself, it was sent by a commissioner,” Gallo said. “The commissioner it was sent by was a far-right Republican, whose thoughts are way outside the mainstream.”Gallo said that Kirsanow was an opinion write