A college soccer coach with a same-sex partner has been forced to resign because of her sexuality, her Indiana team says.
Katie Harrison had been the head coach at Oakland City University since 2016. Members of the team said Harrison’s forceful removal from the program is “blatant discrimination.”
Oakland City University is affiliated with the General Baptist Church. In a statement on human sexuality on its website, the university says “intimate sexual relations are intended for persons in a marriage relationship between one man and one woman.”
“We expect our university community to maintain relationships that align with this sexual ethic,” the southern Indiana university said on its website.
Employees and members of the college community are not allowed to be discriminated against based on their “race, national origin, age, sex or disability.” But some policies can be decided based on the university’s belief in relations only between a man and a woman, a spokesperson for the college told WFIE.
A spokesperson for the university confirmed Harrison’s resignation in a statement to the Evansville Courier & Press but could not comment further.
The team said in an Instagram post Wednesday, April 19, it is “beyond thankful for Harrison, who was a player at the university before she later became a coach.
“A woman who has caused no problems, been nothing but respectful towards the university and put her heart, soul and over a decade into building the soccer program we have today,” the team said. “We are shocked and angry with this new policy as our coach’s sexuality has never a factor regarding her job. This is blatant discrimination.
“A Christian community that believes’ though shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’ has done a remarkable job of rejecting their Christian values.”
Loved ones show support for Harrison
Harrison has received a wave of support from friends and family, who believe her removal from the program was unjust.
One of her former players, Kaitlyn Dimmett, said “every single girl” on the team accepted Harrison being married to a woman.
“We all respected that,” Dimmett said in a Facebook post. “We clapped and applauded when she came out and told us. We were all happy for her.”
Dimmett said she had “never seen such hate and discrimination” from a university.
As multiple people pointed out, Harrison’s resignation came days before the university was set to host a TEDx Talk with a lecture on diversity.
Harrison’s mother-in-law, Tiffany Durham Bowling, said the university “should be ashamed.”
“She takes pride in what she does while making the girls feel like a family,” she said in a Facebook post. “They finished the best they ever had this year and to be belittled and told she would be fired because she has chose to Love a women instead of a man!”
Corbin McCrary, who used to live with Harrison and her wife, said the decision made by the university is “one of their nightmares come true.”
Harrison and her wife had a baby together in January, social media posts show.
“You’re going to do this to someone who has put everything into her soccer program?” McCrary said. “OCU has known for a very long time that Katie and Megan were together. They kept Katie as a coach after her and Megan got married! Now that they have a baby, they are going to fire her? Absolutely ridiculous.”
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