Monday, July 11, 2005

Winning at all costs

Outsports.com recently posted an article about the hiring of a softball coach who's contract was not renewed by University of Florida due to "lack of team progress" but more likely it was for discriminating against one of her gay athletes and pushing her Christian agenda on her players and staff. Karen Johns was the coach (with a winning record) at Florida when one of her athletes sued for discrimination. I had heard about the case but had not hear any more about Johns since that time. The entire department was receiving diversity training under the tutelage of Dr. Pat Griffin who worked personally with Johns.
Well the administration and athletics department at University of Virginia apparently does not have a problem with Johns's history. Lesser allegations than this can crucify people's careers but when it comes to discriminating against lesbian athletes many heads seem to turn the other way. It becomes increasingly difficult to be an advocate for the hiring of more female coaches (female head coaches make up less than half of all head coaches of women's team compared to the 1972 when they comprised about 98 percent of the field) when people like Johns are re-hired and people like Penn State basketball coach Rene Portland continue to get the support of big athletics departments despite their problems with lesbian players. Situations such as these create an even greater atmosphere of unchecked homophobia and continues to keep players and coaches and administrators closeted. While I believe that there would be amazing strength in numbers if more coaches were more visibly out, I know there is extreme fear that if one stands up, she might be standing alone. The departments--and the colleges--that say they are committed to creating diverse, safe environments need to start walking the walk and not making special exceptions for people like Johns and Portland and others like them.

4 comments:

EBuz said...

That Penn State choses to call themselves the "Lady" Lions is another reason to cheer for their opponents (especially when it's Iowa).

Festle, in Playing Nice, notes that former Baylor coach Pam Bowers was also notoriously anti-lesbian. Apparently she can dish out discrimination but not take it. She sued Baylor for wrongful termination claiming that their decision was motivated by gender not job performance.

ken said...

Yes, perhaps I will blog about the "Lady" ____ some other time. Maybe next March Madness, we can do a count of all the teams that have not given up the demeaning nickname.
Thanks for pointing out the Pam Bowers case, Ebuz. It kind of blows my mind when people clearly have not had enough consciousness-raising to realize that one form of discrimination is not any better than another. One could probably make an argument fairly easily that the homophobia present in women's collegiate sports today contributes to the gender discrimination that occurs. So in a way Pam Bowers, if she is right about the gender discrimination, (which I question given that Baylor currently has a female head coach) she contributed to it herself by perpetuating an atmosphere in which discrimination is accceptable.

EBuz said...

schadenfreude, schadenfreude, schadenfreude schniztlebach.

ken said...

no, no. I don't think it is schadenfreude. I think there has to be some feeling bad about feeling gleeful at someone else's misfortune. I don't feel bad about Bowers. I think it is a case of irony--not in the Alanis Morrisette way either. In trying to perpetuate an agenda, she feel victim to the ripple effects of such an agenda.