Bradford told the World that the gender of her partner shouldn’t matter despite the provisions in ORU’s honor code. She said it made “no sense” for the administration to stop her from continuing her education.

“You shouldn’t be persecuted for being married to someone that you love,” Bradford said. “I believe that we were all created in God’s image and likeness. I can understand not wanting to support the idea of same-sex marriage, but when it comes to reality, this is an educational system — whether you have a personal bias against homosexuals or not, you accepted me as a student.”

Bradford was on track to graduate with her social work degree in the fall 2015 semester when she accepted a job offer from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, but when she was told in August that she could not enroll, DHS revoked the offer, she said. In November, Bradford moved back to Connecticut to be with family, citing a strain on her marriage due to the situation with ORU that was compounded by losing the DHS job.