Professor Loses Fellowship For Supporting Marriage Equality

Tina Beattie

A professor from the U.K., who was chosen for a fellowship the University of San Diego has been disinvited from the Catholic institution after administrators discovered her support of marriage equality. 

Tina Beattie, a theology professor at Roehampton University, signed a letter published in the Times of London newspaper with 27 other Catholics saying that it was "perfectly proper for Catholics, using fully informed consciences, to support the legal extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples." The letter was published over the summer. 

Last week, Beattie received a letter from University president Mary Lyons, who said she had to rescind Beattie's fellowship invitation, the Associated Press reports. 

"I hope you understand the difficulties associated with this decision, one to which I arrived with great and thoughtful consideration," Lyons wrote.

Beattie asked to reconsider her fellowship at the university's Frances G. Harpst Center of Catholic Thought and Culture, but she said a small yet dedicated group of bloggers pushed university administrators to the decision.