A Tale of Howe

2 Conference Titles, 1 Kid on the Way, 0 Job

International football is still contemplating the story of Anton Hysen. The 20-year-old footballer from a lower league Swedish team revealed recently that he is gay, is aware that coming out might likely impact his career prospects, and really doesn’t care if it does. Right now, he’s still playing for Utsiktens BK and has a lifetime ahead of him for acceptance of gay athletes to improve.

Lisa Howe, on the other hand, is a 17-year veteran of college soccer currently without a job.

Howe was the women’s soccer coach who either resigned under pressure or was fired by Belmont University officials after announcing she was gay and was expecting a child with her same-sex partner. It seems some university board members saw the birth announcement as a violation of its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” hiring policy.

Bear in mind; this is a private school in Nashville, not the US military. The school appears to be painfully making a transition from its previous connection with the conservative-minded Southern Baptist Convention to become a more independent national university, but it still struggles with an obvious identity crisis.

While acknowledged homosexuals have been employed by the school over the years, it seems once someone made an issue of it, said employee would resign before getting sacked by the still-conservative board of Trustees. One imagines some hush money might have been exchanged as well to prevent Belmont from being hit with the media spotlight.

Since December, neither side has said much—Howe has remain muted for what she described as “contractual reasons.” But what has transpired since with the university has been interesting. In January 2011, the school added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. In February, it approved of the school’s first gay student organization in keeping with its new nondiscrimination policy.

Seems like the university has wised up and seen the error of its ways, eh? Either that, or its trying to demonstrate it does not discriminate as an institution when Howe sues them over her lost job.

No, really what this recent repentance is about is money and access. After Howe’s resignation/firing from Belmont, Nashville Metro Council passed a non-discrimination ordinance for contractors. Belmont University had an existing project with Metro Council on a $7 million renovation of Rose Park for sports facilities that was placed in jeopardy because of this new ordinance.

The school had to embrace change; otherwise, it would have lost the investment it’s already made in Rose Park and would have had to look elsewhere for space after having just won a 3-year fight to get into Rose Park.

So, gay students have an organization to join, the university is making the case that it’s okay with homosexuality, and Nashville Metro Council looks comprised of politicians who get things done.

Lisa Howe, on the other hand? She’s still out of a job.