According to a newly filed complaint, the New Mexico State University preferred Camille LeVieux to Camille LeNoir. The “new” LeNoir turned out to be a straight, Christian women’s basketball coach. The university appears to have had the older LeNoir in mind when they hired her. LeNoir once as star at the University of Southern California who was drafted by the Washington Mystics and played professionally overseas. She was also an open lesbian. LeNoir would seem an ideal choice except that she spoke openly about being heterosexual and now opposing homosexuality as a sin. Her offer was later rescinded by the New Mexico State University and the hiring coach allegedly told her it was about the video and her defense of heterosexuality.
LeNoir, 31, enthusiastically accepted the job with the New Mexico State University, but then the school saw a video where she came out as straight and Christian. She said on the video that homosexuality was “wrong” and “not worth losing your soul over.” The school rescinded its job offer.
In a federal lawsuit that raises interesting free speech and religious freedom issues, LeNoir sued New Mexico State with discrimination. New Mexico State denies that any discrimination occurred, but it acknowledges that her view of homosexuality was the concern because it concluded that it “would have had an adverse impact” on her “ability to effectively coach and recruit players who identify as LGBT.”
The Washington Post cites the statement of Candice Wiggins, Stanford’s career scoring leader who played for four WNBA teams, earlier this year that 98 percent of the players in the WNBA are gay. She complained that she was pressured and ostracized for being straight.
At 16, LeNoir began dating a female basketball player. She then applied to college and played basketball as a self-identified lesbian. Nevertheless, she says that it never felt right. She believes that the Bible clearly mandates that homosexuality is a sin.
While playing professional ball in Greece, LeNoir did an interview over Skype with Christopher Hudson of the Forerunner Chronicles, a Christian organization. In the interview, she stated:
“I would say, it’s not worth it,” she said. “If you are in a same-sex relationship, it is not worth losing your soul. Whoever you’re in that relationship with, like the Lord told me, it will be the death of you. I just believe that you can overcome it. You can overcome and defeat sin . . . If you believe something that you were born gay or homosexual or whatever — if you feel you were born that way — I would say that you weren’t. God wouldn’t create you homosexual, then say in the Bible that it’s wrong, and then send you to hell. He doesn’t operate like that.”
The organization ran the interview on YouTube with the title “Sports, Fame, & Fornication.”
The university is claiming that Aggies’ coach, Mark Trakh, did not have authority to hire LeNoir. However, her counsel argues that the coach had already arranged to cut his own salary to pay LeNoir more. When she asked him why the offer was rescinded, she says that Trakh simply told her to take the video down and that such a video would bar her from any coaching job. She says that she was left with the impression that, if she returned to being a lesbian, she could keep the job.
Of course, a jury could well decide that the university did not make this decision on the basis of either LeNoir’s sexuality or faith. However, if her views were the cause for the termination, it would present a troubling conflict where one’s personal views of homosexuality is a criteria for hiring. LeNoir can obviously hold such views and not engage in discrimination against gay players. We will have to see if the contracting authority defense is accepted as true or rejected as a post hoc rationalization. In either case, this is clearly a case to watch.
Hope she wins. Where is the “diversity” in not hiring a straight coach? Once again, liberals show their bigotry.
insane!
~annie
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Person X was my hetero co-worker/Chief of IT for Department with about 1200 employees. He applied to transfer to a different Department. He walked in for the interview, finding what appeared to be virtually 100% homosexual employees, including everyone in the interview process. He was tempted to just leave, but sat through the interview anyway, and was of course passed over.
He later met the successful applicant, who appeared to play for the “dominant” team.
Joseph Jones – not that your friend wasn’t screwed over, but they may have had a particular candidate in mind when the position opened and the interviewing was just a formality.
I have found it interesting that women’s sports, particularly basketball, are dominated by lesbians; while men’s sports are uber heterosexual, making it so no major male sport figure has ever come out of the closet.
That’s true for equestrian sports as well. Gay, lesbian, and straight all ride and compete just fine. It’s not an issue. No one really cares who sleeps with whom; it’s all about your ride and coaching ability.
It is a shame that sexuality is an issue in women’s basketball. Sexuality has nothing to do with how you play. No one should be discriminated against, as a player or employee, for being straight or gay.
From an employer’s perspective, it will always come down to whether an employee’s publicly stated personal opinions affects their job performance, leads to discrimination on the job, or negatively impacts the company’s reputation.
There could be a valid concern that she would discriminate or pressure her players, but that should be examined not assumed. The fact remains that she was discriminated against because of her sexuality and religion.
This is also illustrative of the problems with quotas. If she was chosen specifically because of her sexuality, to fill a quota, then her worth diminishes without that designation. Instead of being judged on merit and the contents of our character, we are judged, by the Left, on our race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
Martin Luther King, Jr would be rolling in his grave.
Karen, you are exactly right. MLK would hate to see the “civil rights movement” deteriorate into such matters. The only thing I would add is this: If you consider who and when you have sex with as a moral issue – and I do – there is absolute proof that athletes with high morals tend to perform better. There are exceptions but I am talking about the general rule.
In other words, athletes of both sexes have excess testosterone
Academic institutions are filled with humbugs and one of their hobbies is stating ‘principles’ which are covers nothing more than the tastes and status-markers abroad at the institution in question. Indulgence toward sexual deviance is status-enhancing in contemporary academe. Critiquing sexual deviance is status-lowering.
Question: why have we collectively allocated the task of sorting the labor market to the world’s humbugs?
Well, this is weird !!
I think she has a solid case, however, it will have to get out of New Mexico and the Ninth Circus before she really sees a win.
I think not, based on what little I know about the actual situation.
So I should just stay out of it.
David Benson – will you be representing the University? BTW, you are a little feisty for this early in the morning? She is being discriminated against because of her sexuality, that is a clear violation of her rights. Even straight people have rights you know. 🙂
Not morning here.
From the little I know, she may be prejudiced against lesbians. That would impact her fitness for the position.
Presumably some judge’s opinion will settle the matter.
David Benson – if you had actually read my entire comment you would have noticed that I expect her to lose in New Mexico (very liberal) and Ninth Circus (very liberal) but win in the SC. So, it is actually going to be a bunch of judges deciding this case. As I said in my original comment, she has to get her case past the Ninth Circus.
So I assume you are for throwing out the gay leaders in Boy Scouts since they will most likely be prejudiced against straight boys?
So I assume you are for throwing out the gay leaders in Boy Scouts since they will most likely be prejudiced against straight boys?
Same for all those SJW’s in the teaching profession.
“Not morning here.” -David B. Benson
PCS and some others, here, often jump to conclusions — many of them false.
Yup.
David Benson – it was 1am Arizona time when I sent my message, not sure where you were that is was not morning? Britain?
He may not know where he was. Or is now, for that matter.