Salem is a delightful short trip up the street from me. It's a place with a legendary history and a bit of an issue with witch hunting, a quirky and delightful present (you should visit, but not on Halloween), and apparently a kick-ass mayor. I was unfamiliar with Mayor Kimberley Driscoll before today, but I like her very much.
Over the past few days there was some local drama about the rental of Salem city property to a local college, and this arrangement was being terminated. Gordon College had rented some facilities from the city. They are "an explicitly Christian institution" according to a letter they posted. I don't know anything about their denomination or alignments.
Here's a recent story about the issue from The Boston Globe:
Salem Kills Contract with Gordon College Over School’s Stance Against Antigay Regulations
Salem Mayor Kimberly Driscoll terminated Gordon College’s contract to operate the city’s Old Town Hall on Wednesday. Driscoll said she pulled the contract due to Gordon College’s stance demanding an exemption from federal antigay discrimination regulations.
In a statement posted on the city’s website, Driscoll said the city cannot legally work with “entities that maintain discriminatory practices.” [snip]
So in the ongoing fallout from the SCOTUS ruling on religious exemptions, Gordon College joined up with a little gang of
thugs pals to try to squirm out of "federal regulations that outlaw antigay discrimination" according to the Globe. The city of Salem can't contract with organizations that discriminate. So the rental arrangement had to be cancelled.
The statement from the city of Salem can be found here: Salem terminates contract with Gordon College due to non-compliance with City’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance
....“I am truly disappointed in the stance you have taken, which plainly discriminates against the rights of LGBT individuals, both on and off campus,” said Mayor Driscoll in the letter to President Lindsay. “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.” ....
Apparently this has aerated Glenn Beck's flying monkeys. I am not going to link to anything he's said about it, but the Salem City Hall folks are being deluged with...verbal monkey poo.
The Mayor has responded, in the form of a letter to a local organization. They are the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Youth, or nAGLY. There is a copy of the letter on the Mayor's FB feed, and a copy in a tweet below. The print is a bit small, but I will transcribe a segment:
....This has resulted in a number of phone calls being placed to my office today from people outside of Massachusetts who have expressed some patently offensive views regarding LGBT individuals. These calls appear to be prompted by posts and articles on these right-wing websites, including Glenn Beck's "The Blaze." I anticipate we will receive more of them over the course of this week.
I wanted to inform you that we are keeping a tally of these telephone calls and for each one we receive I will be making a donation of $5 to nAGLY, in support of your good work to create, sustain, and advocate for the policies and services that support our LGBT youth here on the North Shore."
Hat tip to DevBost on twitter for the awareness of this letter, which you may find here for your retweeting pleasure:
Devin @devbost
Glenn Beck's hordes are flooding Salem MA city offices with anti-LGBT calls. The mayor's response is awesome. http://pic.twitter.com/...
The Mayor also tweets, should you wish to express your thoughts on this:
@MayorDriscoll: Apparently, Glenn Beck is not happy about the City’s stance terminating our contract with Gordon College…as a... fb.me/19wbyI44k
The kicker: the college was using the rental space for--wait for it--
....housed the school’s theater production of “Cry Innocent” an interactive play about religious persecution during the Salem Witch Trials.
That's right. A play about the persecution of the innocent by the dominant religious power structures. Mm hmm.