Erskine College in Due West, S.C., has banned homosexuality in response to two male volleyball players coming out last year.
The college is aligned with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian tradition and released the ban on homosexuality in a document called "Statement on Human Sexuality," according to The Washington Post. The Student Services and Athletic Committee submitted the policy, and it was adopted by the board of trustees last Friday.
The document says that the college follows the Bible's teachings, which say that sex happens within the confines of a monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. In the statement, Erskine College says that their conduct policies and procedures will uphold biblical standards while pointing people to Jesus Christ.
"Sexual relations outside of marriage or between persons of the same sex are spoken in the scripture as sin and contrary to the will of the Creator (Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-11)," the statement read.
The statement comes after Drew Davis and Juan Varona, two Erskine volleyball players, came out in an article published on OutSports in March of last year, USA Today reported. The college has received a lot of backlash for the statement. On Twitter, Erskine College said that no gay or straight students have been expelled or asked to leave Erskine College based on the statement.
Many people have expressed their outrage on Twitter, with one man tweeting that Erskine College had to ban unmarried sexually active heterosexuals, anyone who eats clams, any male who has trimmed his beard, anyone who has bought or sold land, anyone with a bank account that offers interest and anyone who is divorced because those practices are banned in the Bible.
The statement will be added to the school's official manuals and used to make further procedural rulings, The Washington Post said. Erskine College said the new rule will not ban any individual or class of individuals from attending the college, but it will make students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.
