Penn State also tolerated open homophobia from its former women's basketball coach

[KamaAina]

I know, this pales into insignificance compared to You-Know-What, but it does help illustrate the wole right-wing Catholic cult thing up there.

http://www.outsports.com/women/20051018reneportland.htm

The bottom line is this: If Penn State women’s basketball Coach Rene Portland had said she did not want Jewish or black players on her team, she would have been fired within a week.

It has been 19 years, though, since Portland said she did not want lesbians on her team and she is still gainfully employed by the university (which has a non-discrimination policy based on sexual orientation). And now Portland is lobbing accusations at a former player who said the coach ran her off the team perceiving she was a lesbian.

Last week, the National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a letter on behalf of former player Jennifer Harris to University President Graham Spanier, demanding that action be taken against Portland for her “decades-long policy of harassing players whom Coach Portland believed to be lesbians.” The complaint says that “despite Harris’ outstanding performance as a player during her two-year career at Penn State from 2003 to 2005, Coach Portland repeatedly questioned Harris about her sexual orientation, repeatedly threatened to kick Harris off the team if she found out Harris was a lesbian, and eventually told other players not to associate with Harris because she believed that Harris was gay. In 2005, Coach Portland abruptly told Harris to find somewhere else to play.”...

“Negative recruiting,” where a coach subtly (or not) implying that a rival is gay in attempt to scare the parents of a recruit, is a dirty secret in women’s college basketball. Portland is not even subtle about her dislike of lesbians ("I will not have it in my program”) even though she said she fully supports the university's policy against discrimination. Her continued support from the Penn State administrators shows how pervasive homophobia is in the sports world.

Portland stayed on the job until after the 2007 season. Ewwwwwwwww. :puke:

[joeybee12]

1. At a "real" university, she would have been fired or at least disciplined...

That whole school sucks.

[madinmaryland]

2. I thought Penn State was a state school and not a catholic school.

:shrug:

[Loki]

3. I'm glad you posted this.

If you ever have the chance to watch a documentary called "Training Rules" you will see first hand the damage that woman did to the young women who came to that school to play the game they loved. She destroyed them none the less even as the monster who sexually assaulted those young boys destroyed them. Money and sports is just as corrupting as money and politics. May they all rot in prison.

[LisaM]

4. I don't think this is insignificant at all.

In fact, I think it shows a pattern of abuse at many levels. And I wished I'd known about this before; it's SHOCKING to me.

WTF, Penn State? This was a program that I always liked to root for when they weren't playing my teams.