Rene Portland Out

Rene Portland is out at Penn State. Man, that makes me happy to write that sentence. Rene the Weenie abruptly "resigned" from Penn State Thursday afternoon and didn't even bother to show up for the press conference announcing same. Sounds like one of those save face resignations where the choice was resign or be fired. Or maybe this was part of the settlement of the Harris case. Whatever the reason, it's good for women's college basketball. Having the coach of one of the most prominent programs in the country run by an avowed lesbian hater and discriminator was just wrong. Plus she sounds like just a nasty human being. Bye bye hater.

Suzie McConnell Serio, who starred for Portland and Penn State in the 1980s, is rumored to be the top candidate to replace Rene.

Sports News Updates

TOTALLY UNRELATED PHOTO: Jan Christensen's "Relative Value" on display at the MGM Gallery in Oslo. The painting featuring 16,311 dollars (12,400 euros) of banknotes glued to a canvas proved too tempting to thieves, who made off with it at the weekend.(AFP/Scapix/File)

Here are some updates on some wildly disparate sports stories we've followed here:

Jen Harris settled her case against Penn State and their lesbian-hating coach Rene the Weenie Portland. Terms were not disclosed, although Harris's lawyer said in a separate statement that Penn State would be taking steps to "further protect all students who have experienced discriminatory treatment". Read opinions on the settlement here, here, and here. As a veteran of many sexual harassment claims, I'm sure Penn State had dug up enough dirt on Harris that she didn't want to go to trial and be embarrassed. Even though Rene Portland probably knew none of it when she kicked Harris off the team for being a lesbian, courts have routinely allowed defendants to embarrass victims of sexual harassment in this situation. I hope the kid got a bucketload of money.

Ranger dancer Courtney Prince won a victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New York Rangers. She will be given all paperwork generated by the Rangers in their internal investigation of her claims, and their investigation of five other claims, including the claim by Anucha Browne Sanders .

Liverpool's Welsh firebrand Craig Bellamy tells the truth about him teeing off against John Arne-Riise before their ChampionsLeague clash with Barcelona last week. Yup, he threatened his teammate with a golf club. Idiota.

Despite more and more national attention to his case, Genarlow Wilson still rots in jail in Georgia. The Georgia state senate has voted the bill that would allow his case to be reviewed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but they are on a two week recess.

Rene The Weenie in USA Today

This time, Rene picked on the wrong kid. Harris parents' support her.
More support for Jen Harris's discrimination complaint against Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland, from today's USA Today:

Others make allegations against Penn State's Portland

New evidence that Portland discriminates against lesbians, from former player Christine Gulas (1981-1982); Chris Demuth, student trainer for 1996-97 season; and Amber Bland, who was kicked off the team the same night as Jen Harris.

Harris stands tall in painful battle with Penn State coach

And, of course, the Weenie's side of the story: Portland vigorously defends her integrity and Penn State program


Previous posts: Rene is a Weenie (March 26, 2006)

Just Keep Sending Her to Diversity Training; It Worked So Well Before (April 19, 2006)

The lawsuit is taking a physical and mental toll on Harris. "I'm on sleeping pills and anti-depressants now because I've gone through such a long period of depression that it was starting to worry people," she says. Adds her father: "I haven't heard Jennifer laugh in a year."

Just Keep Sending Her to Diversity Training; It Worked So Well Before

Penn State finds Rene Portland ('Rene the Weenie') discriminated against Jen Harris on perceived sexual oriention grounds, but lets her off, again:

Women's Hoops Blog (1)

[H]ere is the University press release. It is, as rumored, a slap on the wrist.

PSU's internal investigation found that Coach Portland did indeed violate the school's antidiscrimination policy.

The report ... conclude[d] that enough evidence existed to substantiate a claim that Portland discriminated against Harris by creating a “hostile, intimidating, and offensive environment” because of Harris' sexual orientation. This is in violation of Penn State Policy AD-42, which prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics.

But the sanctions ordered are mild. Very mild. They include:

(1) A letter of reprimand (strongly worded, I'm sure).
(2) A warning that future violations will not be tolerated (and this time we really, really mean it).
(3) Diversity training (insert rolling-eyes emoticon here).
(4) A $10,000 fine.

Women's Hoops Blog (2)

But are these sanctions meaningful? NCLR's Karen Doering scoffs at the notion of putting Rene Portland through more diversity training.

"She underwent diversity training in 1991 with no effect," Doering said. "Her very statement of denials today clearly shows she does not get it. If she doesn't think she has done anything wrong, she's not going to change her behavior."

Walt Moody, Knight Ridder (San Jose Mercury-News): Sanctions against Penn State's Portland have no real bite

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The line has been drawn in the sand by Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland and university president Graham Spanier is standing on the other side.

"I will return as head coach of the Lady Lions next year," she said Tuesday during a hastily called news conference to dispute university findings that she violated the school's anti-discrimination policy in dealings with former player Jennifer Harris, who has filed a federal lawsuit against Portland and the school.

The university report, which spawned from Harris' charges that she was discriminated against because of perceived sexual orientation and race, concluded that created a "hostile, intimidating and offensive environment" based on Harris' perceived sexual orientation. The report said there was no basis for the race claims of Harris, who is black.

By accepting the findings of the report, Spanier agreed that "the preponderance of evidence supported a conclusion that discrimination had taken place" against Harris, who claims she is not gay, but was perceived to be so by Portland.

Spanier ordered four actions to be taken against Portland among other recommendations for the school's athletic department.

Portland could have accepted to what amounts to a colossal slap on the wrist and gone on with her coaching career. The sanctions have no real bite.

A written letter in a personnel file for a coach who isn't going anywhere else is no big deal. Neither is attending a "professional development experience devoted to diversity and inclusiveness," where the only penalty is time spent.

The hard-hitters are supposed to be a $10,000 fine (for a coach who last year signed a four-year deal that pays six figures) and the promise she will be dismissed if she violates the anti-discrimination policy again.

They're hardly hard-hitting.

Given Portland's history - published comments in the early 1990s about not wanting lesbians in her program - the punishment had the potential to be harsher.

Mechelle Voepel, ESPN: Step in right direction, but so much further to go

Previous post: Rene is a Weenie (March 26, 2006)

Rene is a Weenie

Rene Portland, the head coach of Penn State's women's basketball team, has been openly discriminating against lesbian players for years. Coach Mom & Dad & I were at the Women's Final Four in New Orleans in 1991 when she was given the National Division I Coach of the Year Award. We sat on our hands when the award was announced. We were too polite to boo, but Coach Mom did mutter "Discriminator!" loudly when she stepped to the podium.

Massachusetts has big billboards on the highways as you enter the state warning about our gun laws (at least we used to -- has our series of Rethug governors had them taken down?) I wish we had big billboards warning people like Rene Weenie Portland that Massachusetts doesn't tolerate discriminators and haters. Get out of town, and take your medieval attitudes with you, Rene Weenie.

Boston Globe: When the fouls get very personal
Player's suit claims Penn State coach was biased against lesbians

By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff | March 26, 2006

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- They echo through the years, voices from a generation of female basketball players who say their lives were marred by a powerful college coach's campaign against homosexuality.

Their legacy of pain began in 1982, when, Cindy Davies says, Penn State coach Maureen T. ''Rene" Portland threatened to expose her as a lesbian. The legacy endured as Portland in 1986 publicly espoused her opposition to coaching homosexuals and reaffirmed her stance in 1991, all the while allegedly engaging in a pattern of bias based on sexual orientation. And the legacy grows as Jennifer Harris pursues a federal discrimination claim that Portland cut her from the Penn State team last year in part because the coach considered her a lesbian.

As the women's basketball community converges on Boston this week for the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, the Portland case looms as a watershed chapter in a decades-long struggle to eradicate prejudice that has long festered in the sport against homosexual players and coaches. Numerous athletes and coaches said in interviews that nearly every facet of women's college basketball, from recruiting to hiring practices, has been affected by discrimination based on sexual orientation.

''This lawsuit is the most significant thing that has happened in trying to address homophobia in the sport to date," said Pat Griffin, a professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts whose educational program aimed at curbing bias against homosexuals has been distributed by the NCAA to every member school. ''It's a cautionary tale for coaches and athletic directors that they cannot discriminate with impunity anymore."

While the NCAA prepares a survey on the impact of homophobia in the sport and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association plans at its national convention in Boston this week to adopt a code of ethics that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, Harris, 21, is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a number of institutional reforms in her 20-count civil rights suit against Portland, Penn State athletic director Timothy Curley, and the school. The list of proposed reforms includes annual mandatory anti-discrimination training for Penn State's athletic staff.

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Confrontational coach
In Portland's case, the timeline of her campaign against homosexuality dates to 1982, her second full year at Penn State (she was hired by the school's legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, who then doubled as athletic director). Suspicious that Davies, one of her prized players, was romantically involved with the team's female student manager, Portland dismissed the manager and confronted Davies, the former player said in a telephone interview.

''It's seared in my mind to this day," Davies, 43, said of the confrontation. ''[Portland] said, 'I don't know if it's true, but if I find out it's true, there's nothing that will stop me from going to your parents, the university, and the media.' "

Davies said she ''felt like I was being blackmailed" but lacked the support she would have needed as a 19-year-old to challenge Portland.

''I was scared to death," she said. ''I felt like I was cornered. I ended up saying I would leave the program to concentrate on my academics."

After leaving Penn State, Davies said, she entered a lengthy period of depression in which she contemplated suicide.