HomoPhobia in womens basketball

After watching the film in class. I am saddened by the horrific double life identity certain women had to live in order to play the game they loved at the college they wanted to play at. In particular With regards to the film Penn state University, however this double life is happening all over the country in colleges across the country. Rene portland is portrayed as a a lesbian gay hater. who will terminate your scholarship if she even thinks you are engaging in lesbian activity. However on paper Rene portland has a excellent resume and the support of the community, alumni, and the university in particular Joe Paterneo. It must be incredibly difficult to try and battle such powerful individual's when your 19, 20, 21 years of age and just want to be accepted for who you are on and off the court. To me, hearing the stories from these women in the film was educational because there has been a history of this discrimination at this school for quite sometime and we got a chance to hear the real side of the story. The most detrimental part of the story was that all the women shared a common trait, and that was they all had their hops and dreams ripped out from under them. That is they all had hopes of playing professional basketball before they got to Penn State and this one women went out of her way to put an end to their basketball careers. in addition she emotionally raped all these women. Jen harris and her family stood up to this tyrant and brought the media to penn states door asking penetrating questions, although Rene portland only got a slap on the wrist harris and girls like her have helped women who have yet to be in this situation now have an avenue to turn to. They now don't have to feel so alone. To me their silent struggle is one i will not forget i have plans to work in the basketball industry both collegiate and professional levels and if i ever see anything of this nature occurring from my institution there will be a complete eradication of that particular coach and or assistant coaches from that institution. These are people careers, coaches have in there pockets, something so precious should be respected. This problem really lies in the deep dark old conservative cultural stigmas of homosexual conceptualization and it has been passed down from generation to generation and it reached Rene portland and she has obviously portrayed her distaste for the gay and lesbian community at Penn State University. Further with regards to negative recruiting for coaches to come to athletes homes and state that there daughter will be coming to a lesbian free college is just plain old rude

Jon Mellone
Kin338 Womenn in sport Tuesday thursday 9:30-10:45
April 13, 2011