Kentucky College Expels Student for Being Gay

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

[Jason] Johnson, a sophomore majoring in theater arts, was expelled from the [University of the Cumberlands] Thursday because he declared online that he is gay. In a statement released last week, the university's president, Jim Taylor said students are held to a "higher standard" and that "students know the rules before they come to this institution."

I suppose that the university—a small, private, Baptist school in Kentucky—has the right to make its own policies; and a clause in the current student handbook says that a student "may be suspended or asked to withdraw" if he or she "engages in or promotes" homosexuality. However, this clause is a recent addition, and was not included in the handbook available to Johnson when he decided to attend.

Moreover, according to the handbook the punishment for being gay is possible suspension or expulsion. Thus Johnson got the maximum penalty, and he got it just weeks before the end of the term. That's just nasty. The university at least could have waited until the end of the semester. Johnson's classmate Renee Kuder says:

"They're being hypocritical, by Christian standards. If we love each other, accept each other for who we are, why are they kicking him out? I almost feel like they're trying to mold us, me, into a person that I wouldn't want to be.

"There's a letter in the student handbook that says everyone is a unique creation of God, you're special, we care about you. They didn't care if he didn't have a place to go. They could have pretty much ruined his life."

Needless to say, the on-campus drama generated by the expulsion isn't good for anyone's educational experience.