MEMPHIS, TN -- This week, the University of Memphis began offering family rec center memberships to its students who can prove they are living in a family unit regardless of their sexual orientation.
The university took less than a week to change its membership policy after student Edie Love met with university officials and launched a campaign on Facebook to get the family membership policy changed to include same-sex couples.
Initially, Love was told that she did not qualify for a family membership because she was not legally married to her domestic partner. She and her partner were married in a non-legal ceremony in 2008. But to gain access to the school’s rec center, the couple traveled to Eureka Springs, AR, where they obtained domestic partnership papers.
University officials worked with the Tennessee Board of Regents to make the change official. East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, also will begin offering domestic partnership memberships for its student rec center on July 1.