Fired Lesbian Soccer Coach and Her Players Talk to ESPN About Discrimination

by Michael Jones · 2010-12-17 11:26:00 UTC
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Lisa Howe was a winning soccer coach at Belmont University, and beloved by her players. Last month, she announced that she was having a baby with her same-sex partner. And faster than a World Cup announcer can scream "GOAL!" Howe was terminated by the University.

Howe's players on the soccer team have expressed near unanimous frustration with the school for practicing anti-gay discrimination in their employment policies. And now Howe and the team will be speaking with ESPN's Outside the Lines this Sunday to talk about the culture at Belmont University that led to a really great soccer coach being removed, solely because she was a lesbian.

"She told me that she had been sat in the administration's office and they told her because her morals and values conflicted with Belmont's mission statement, she could no longer be an employee of the University," says one of the players about Coach Howe. Those same players are now joining with others in the Nashville community and around the country to dismantle homophobia on Belmont's campus.

As for Coach Howe? She's kept a relatively low profile since the incident, though she did release a statement last week.

"I was a good student athlete recruiter, had an organized and professionally run program, and was one of Belmont's best employees," Howe said in the statement. "None of that changed when I acknowledged that I am a lesbian and that my partner and I are expecting a baby. I am proud of who I am and my family and our future, and I want every person — no matter what race, religion, nationality or sexuality they represent — to feel the same way."

Howe's appearance on Outside the Lines will mark her first national television appearance to discuss her firing. You can check out a preview of the segment below, which will air in full on Sunday morning on ESPN at 9:00am eastern. From the looks of it, Coach Howe seems to be the type of employee any University would be lucky to have. Check out her inspiring words in the preview below.

"The very last time I met with the team I wrote on the board 'No regrets.' I hope that they can live their lives, and where they make decisions that they have no regrets," Coach Howe says.


Photo credit: ESPN

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

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