Gay rights advocates filled the First Church in Wenham, Massachusetts, Friday night, and plan to have a presence this weekend at the Gordon College homecoming, hoping to end the institution's ban on "homosexual behavior."
"Were asking them respectfully to remove those words from the life and conduct statement," said Andrew Carlson-Lier, a member of "OneGordon," an association of gay alumni, students, and staff.
The Christian school sparked outrage last summer among some in the LGBTQ community and beyond after the school's president, Michael Lindsay, signed on to a letter to President Barack Obama requesting a religious exemption to federal hiring rules that protect gay and transgender workers from discrimination.
Paul Miller, a former student and staff member at the Gordon and the leader of "OneGordon," said because of the college's "exclusionary policies towards LGBT people, we can never work at Gordon and that's a big thing."
"After working at Gordon for 3 years I had to come out. I know that I'm a gay man and I knew that I had to be able to express who I was," said Miller.
The college's decision last summer prompted local communities and vendors to sever their ties with the college.
The Gordon Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Rick Sweeney, has said their standards forbidding homosexual practice and sex outside of marriage haven't changed.
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Meantime, the organization that accredits New England colleges and universities recently gave Gordon a year to report back about it's policy.
The college has now formed a 20-person group to review that policy.
Ultimately, though, Sweeney says only the Board of Trustees can change it.
He also said in a statement:
"One Gordon is not a Gordon College-sponsored, sanctioned or affiliated group. It was organized by Gordon alumni who identify as both Christians and as LGBTQ in sexual orientation. The College welcomes all alumni at Homecoming with the understanding this is a celebratory event for alumni and Gordon families as we recognize our 125th anniversary. Our goal is to celebrate what unites us as Christians, and respect the fact that we may not always agree."
