Recent incidents around a women's soccer league that plays in the Glendale Sports Complex in southern California were reported today in the WeHo News. Three different lesbian players have been assaulted during actual play on several occasions, by some of the other women players. The lesbians were also been subjected to verbal insults and abuse by their teammates.
In spite of complaints by the three women, the referees are doing nothing about it. Yet the rules of the game require them to issue yellow or red cards (penalties) for deliberate injurious contact or unsportsmanlike remarks. The team captain and soccer league have also done nothing to stop the problem…and the Glendale Sports Complex is taking a "hands off" stance. Since it's a private league, not school based, accountability on the human-rights front is — so far — not being demanded by the Center or the league.
Recent incidents around a women's soccer league that plays in the Glendale Sports Complex in southern California were reported today in the WeHo News. Three different lesbian players have been assaulted during actual play on several occasions, by some of the other women players. The lesbians were also been subjected to verbal insults and abuse by their teammates.
In spite of complaints by the three women, the referees are doing nothing about it. Yet the rules of the game require them to issue yellow or red cards (penalties) for deliberate injurious contact or unsportsmanlike remarks. The team captain and soccer league have also done nothing to stop the problem…and the Glendale Sports Complex is taking a “hands off” stance. Since it’s a private league, not school based, accountability on the human-rights front is — so far — not being demanded by the Center or the league.
So here's the irony: the female perpetrators of this violence are supposedly celebrating their liberation as women by taking on a sport historically dominated by men. Yet they are willing to trash women who have a different sexual orientation, and try to drive them out of the game by the kind of on-the-field violence that you seldom see even among male soccer players.
The incidents highlight a growing problem in the U.S. that is seldom talked about: ideology-motivated violence by women against other women. This violence happens more and more often today, when women feel empowered — by their family, school, church or whatever –to appoint themselves as social police. They go out to hammer on other women that they believe are transgressing against the rules of society. Example: the screaming demonstrators who gather at abortion clinics with the intent of harassing and roughing up women patients, trying to keep them from going inside.
There's lots more that can be said about woman-on-woman violence today. Meanwhile I think we will be hearing more about this case.
One of the lesbian players told the WeHo News when she was asked what her plans were: "Do what you think is right. Stand up for yourself and for the people around you. Never, let it get you down, it's their problem. And…never let them see you sweat!" — Patricia Nell Warren
