Back in April College Guide wrote about the odd situation at the University of Missouri, where Robin Pingeton announced at the press conference the university held when it hired her how happy she was, as a Christian and wife and mother, to be the women’s varsity basketball coach.
She may have been trying to avoid a situation like the one at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. According to an article by Mike Organ in The Tennessean, it’s looking like last week the school fired one of its coaches because she was a lesbian. As Organ writes:
Belmont University women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe is without a job today, and the reason may involve her sexual orientation.
Erica Carter, a senior on the team, said Howe told her and her… Tuesday that athletics department officials had given her the choice to resign or be terminated because she had told the team her partner was pregnant with a baby due in May.
According to the article, the Tennessee Human Rights Act does not protect employees from termination based on sexual orientation. The act makes it illegal to discriminate because of an “individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex, age or national origin.”
The university said that Howe decided to resign on her own.
Yes, abruptly at the end of the semester, and after six years leading a team that now boasts a 52-48-16 record. That makes sense.
About 40 students led a protest against the termination (or forced resignation) of Howe on Sunday. [Image via]
