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05/20/06-05/22/06

Penn State basketball coach lashes out at former player, gay rights group

Penn State basketball coach lashes out at former player, gay rights group

Antigay Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland, who's facing a lawsuit from a former player, says the player and the gay rights group representing her are trying to ruin her reputation. In a statement released yesterday in State College, Penn., Portland said it was "time to fight back" against the player, Jennifer Harris, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Associated Press reports.

"I'm not going to sit silently on the sidelines anymore and let this former player and this national organization spread damaging allegations while they attempt to exploit this case for their own agendas," Portland said in the statement, according to the AP. She added, "I am not perfect, but I'm a fair and honest person who cares deeply about my players, our basketball program, and Penn State University," and that "the sexual orientation or race of any player or person is irrelevant to me."

Earlier this week, Portland and Harris, who says the coach tried to force her off the team because she thought Harris was gay (she is not), failed to settle the suit in a court-ordered mediation session. Last month, a Penn State investigation into Harris's accusations determined that Portland violated the university's nondiscrimination policy in her treatment of Harris, who now attends James Madison University in Virginia, and fined the coach $10,000.

The NCLR dismissed Portland's remarks. "We solely have an agenda to protect our client, Jennifer, and other young women from this type of harmful discrimination that they have been subject to as part of the Penn State Lady Lions basketball team," the group's Karen Doering, Harris's attorney, said in a statement, reports the AP.

In Portland's statement, the coach notes that until now there have been no formal complaints lodged against her, although earlier in her 26-year career she bragged publicly about keeping lesbians off her basketball team. (The Advocate)

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