Belmont Coach Resigns Upon Lesbian Disclosure

FILE- In this Sept. 21, 1991 file photo, aerialist Angel Wallenda walks the high-wire performs at Stone Mountain, Ga. Wallenda, who lost a leg to cancer but trained herself to walk the wire with the help of a prosthetic leg, eventually died of the disease on May 3, 1996, at age 28. On Friday, June 15, 2012, Nik Wallenda, a seventh generation ?Flying Wallenda,? will attempt a high-wire crossing of the Niagra Falls gorge between the United States and Canada. The event will be covered on live television. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly, File) / Charles Wallenda

Belmont University soccer players say their coach was forced to resign because she told them that she and her same-sex partner were having a baby.

Athletics director Mike Strickland said in a news release earlier this week that Lisa Howe resigned on her own and that she did not offer further explanation.

However, several members of the soccer team told The Tennessean newspaper that Howe told them she was pressured into resigning after the revelation that she and her partner were having a baby.

Howe told the team Thursday that she was resigning.

Neither Howe nor Strickland immediately returned calls to The Associated Press on Friday seeking comment.

However, Howe was quoted in the university's press release as saying, "I am at a point in my life where I am satisfied to move on."

Erica Carter, a senior on the team, said Howe told her and her roommate that 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.

"She said she went to the administration to get permission to talk to us about (the pregnancy) so that she could bring us to light on her becoming a mother," Carter told the newspaper. "She didn't want us to hear it from other sources."

According to Carter, Howe said administrators did not immediately give her permission to talk to the team about the issue. Howe told Carter she was again not given permission several weeks later, Carter said.

"By then people were finding out, so she went ahead and took the initiative and told us, even though they didn't clear her to tell us," Carter said.

Team captain Sari Lin told The Tennessean that she met with Strickland earlier this week. Strickland said Howe had violated university policy, according to Lin.

"He basically said we have the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy and when she told us about the pregnancy, it violated that," Lin said.

Howe had been at Belmont six seasons. During that time, she compiled a 52-48-16 record, and her team won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season championship last year.

"She's very upset and hurt," Carter said. "She's hurt more than anything."

[millerc1]

SUBMIT YOUR OPINION HERE: http://campus.belmont.edu/students/f10/ism/310001/millerc/

[sd2nash]

For people who are posting that Homosexuals have no place in our society are sick. I stand behind my family. I do not teach hate. Homosexuality is not a disease. These are people who grow up in normal families, and are who they are. I think if someone is able to share their love with a man or a woman then good. It is not up to you homophobics. Try putting yourself in someelses shoes. Life is not simple. But these people have the right to have employment. Just like men who sexually harrass women, look in the mirror because your so close to be called a Rapist. Whatever happened to Respect and dignity? There is no more respect in the world and it needs to be taught at home that every human being has the right live his or her life as he or she chooses. Sometimes it is not a choice, it is someone who grew up that way. Get educated before you open your blow hole creep. All I have to say shaking my head what has our world come too? To be so hateful to one another? Ask yourself this question if you wanted to be treated that way. I would say the answer would be no...

[drummerchick435]

I feel terrible for Coach Howe. I'll be praying for her and the administration at Belmont.

[venicejoe]

How bizarre that you have to get permission from your employer to tell your players that you and your partner are expecting. When my wife and I were expecting I told everyone! Just think I could have been fired for doing that! What happens when you are pregnant and work there? Obviously you can't say your are expecting - just another example of conservative corrective running amok!

[formrusmcsgt]

"She's very upset and hurt," Carter said. "She's hurt more than anything."
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She decided on her own to yap about it.

If that's the policy, she has to follow it or go.

She blew it off and she's "hurt"?

Not that bright obviously...I hope for the kid's sake her parntner is.

[drummerchick435]

She was going to be fired anyway, even if she kept quiet. They said that once the baby was born, she would be fired.

[bigmamamuley]

Shame on Belmont,no,shame on this coach. Schools are suppose to be about teaching students, not a forum for teachers to air their personal information and lifestlyes no matter they be Hetro or homosexual. This is the problem with Homosexuality, they have to go around telling everyone their business. Her job was to coach Soccer, not to be telling players what's going on in her personal life. She cross the line of teacher, student, and should have been terminated. Another thing is Homosexuals can't have children. This is an absolute distortion of the fact. The only way a woman can get pregnant is with the sperm of a man.

[PVperson2]

Your an idiot.

[mcwinfree]

Yeah seriously, you're an idiot.

[texbelle123]

Who the heck is Belmont? gods 'R us?

Their mission statement: Belmont University is a student-centered Christian community providing an academically challenging education that empowers men and women of diverse backgrounds to engage and transform the world with disciplined intelligence, compassion, courage and faith.

Too bad they can't live up to that goal.
It empowers people of 'diverse backgrounds' --- only as long as the diverse background is narrow enough to be acceptable.
It encourages students to transform the world -- only as long as they transform it to be like them.
... to transform the world with intelligence, compassion, courage and faith -- only as long as they (1) don't think enough to actually use their intelligence, (2) have only enough compassion to try to lie their way out of their actions, (3) have only enough courage not to offend their conservtive supporters, and (4) have only enough faith to claim moral superiority when behaving in a rote, cold and unfeeling, cowardly and fearful way.

Way to go Belmont. Guess you've set the real example you truly want your students to follow.

[sd2nash]

It is a shame that someone is forced to resign due to their personl relationship. As long as that person is able to perform their job to their full qualifications, then I would say its okay.
But what Belmont is doing is illegal. My view on it is...As long she is not sexually Harrassing someone on the team, then she should be allowed to be coach there. It goes the same for Hetrosexual couples. What goes on outside the office is not the business of the school. I hope she sues the pants off Belmont...I am just shaking my head how people in higher conservative positions think. For my view, she can sue the president of the school for Slander.....I hope that the school would offer a reinstatement, but then the coach has every right in the world to look for another school. i would not go to Belmont or support Belmont for this reason...I am a Native Tennessean living Abroad. I feel that people are dumb in their thinking on this issue.