St. Joe's Doesn't 'Like' Couple

BY VINNY VELLA, vellav@phillynews.com 215-854-5905
Posted: February 03, 2012

IF CUPID were Catholic, this would never have happened.

Saint Joseph's University showed its conservative side yesterday when it prevented a lesbian couple from entering a Valentine's Day contest run by its alumni association. Thanks to an outpouring of support for the two women over Facebook, the decision was later reversed.

"Our alma mater . . . told us that we are not really, fully part of the SJU community," Megan Edwards and Katie MacTurk wrote in a Facebook post. "Words cannot express the disappointment and sadness we felt after hearing this."

Edwards and MacTurk, who met while attending SJU and were engaged in October, tried to submit an entry to "How I Met My Hawk Mate," a contest looking for the best love story between two of the school's alumni.

The pair said that they later received a notice from the school telling them that they couldn't enter because "the Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex marriage."

They turned to their fellow Hawks for help, starting a protest that bombarded the Alumni Association's Facebook page with complaints. The couple's entry was added to the contest yesterday, along with a statement from the university claiming that it's "a welcoming, inclusive community" whose focus is "on respect and caring for all individuals as individuals."

The publicity has been good for the couple. The contest, which is based on how many "likes" each entry gets on Facebook, ends Feb. 13. Edwards and MacTurk had close to 1,400 likes last night, more than 1,000 ahead of their closest competitor.

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