I read an article in the February issue of ESPN the magazine entitle "Unhealthy Climate." This discussed how women's basketball programs use negative recruiting against schools who might be known to allow a lesbian lifestyle. It struck me that the term "family environment" indicated that the program did not allow homosexual conduct and that being in that environment directly correlated with having a clean program. Two notable programs, UConn and Tennessee, actually had a falling out due to this topic. Pat Summit, the coach of the lady Vols, abruptly voided the contract to play UConn annually and people say it was due to Connecticut using anti-gay recruiting tactics against their program. Those two coaches are the best and for them to be caught up in that sort of issue really shows how prevalent it is. On another unfortunate note for women, a lot of them lose their jobs in coaching or don't even want to pursue it because of their orientation and how they have to defend it. Heather Barber, a sports psychologist professor, said this "Coaches aren't worried about getting fired for being lesbian, but they do worry about being fired for not being able to recruit successfully because of it." That is a very powerful quote and shows that this a going to be an ongoing issue if we as a society do not open our minds and not be so close minded. To me it is just sad how women's lives and careers are altered due to what their orientation is.
Jose Magallan KIN 338I Tues/Thurs 930-1045
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3 comments:
Jose's post got me thinking more and more about how many colleges today are actually following this notion of not allowing lesbian women to play in sport. If huge schools such as UConn and Tennessee are making an environment that excludes such women and terming the school a, "family environment" than how many other schools are doing this? The initial blow surrounding this topic came to me while learning about Rene Portland, I was shocked to hear that one woman would go to such lengths to ensure no lesbian player was playing on her team and that if found out to be lesbian, Rene would kick them off the team and guarantee no play time at any other prestigious university. No coach should ever have the right to refuse a student athelte play time solely on the basis of her orientation. Major credibility questions arise toward those institutions and universitites that still allow this mentality to continue, the mentality that evades young women from following their dreams.
Christina Fallon
338I Section 4 T/Th 9:30AM
To me this post shows how we as a society need to work on changing our views about what should be allowed to be said by colleges and people. There should be no reason why sexual orientation should matter on whether a person is recruited or not. Recruiting like the government should keep personal beliefs aside and work for the greater good. If a player is good and has a good attitude that all you need to base your recruitment on. I was barely able to believe people like Rene Portland are allowed to make decisions like that and change people’s lives. O one not even a coach should be able to regulate like that. They should open a hotline or do a survey of recruited athletes to find out what colleges are telling them so that negative recruiting can be penalized and regulated better.
EUNISSES HERNANDEZ
WOMEN IN SPORT
T-TH 9:30-10:45
section 5681
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