Current and former Anderson University students gathered Sunday morning to show support for a professor who says she lost her job last week because of her sexual orientation.

About 20 people stood outside the university's metal archway on Boulevard in Anderson holding signs and waving flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community and former theater professor Miranda Barnett.

In a video posted Wednesday on Instagram, Barnett said her contract as a part-time professor at Anderson University had not been renewed for the fall semester because she is queer.

[…]the spokesperson also sent a written statement to the Independent Mail that reads, in part, "Anderson University is a private Christian university which upholds the South Carolina Baptist traditional view of sexuality and marriage as set forth in Scripture."

[…]Barnett, a Greenville native, won Anderson University's 2019-20 award for "Excellence in Teaching" for part-time faculty. Nominations were submitted from students and faculty, and the recipient was chosen by a student and faculty committee, according to the university's website.