Prairie View A&M has fired women's basketball head coach Dawn Brown after the coach suspended two players for dating.
Brown has said that she was informed her actions were a violation of Title IX, which grants gender protection to student-athletes' access to athletics. Recently a Federal judge has said Title IX protects gay and lesbian people because the distinction that makes them "different" is the gender of the person they are dating.
Brown has defended her actions, saying that she was just following a team policy she has against anyone on the team dating anybody else on the team. It's a policy that is clearly aimed at preventing lesbians on the team from dating one another.
Brown told USA Today she feels "betrayed" by the school.
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I wonder how the two students felt when she suspended them from the team for simply falling for the person they fell for. I wonder how much anxiety boiled up in them again after years of struggling with their identities. I wonder about the sense of betrayal that must have washed over them after having a coach they trusted reject them.
At some point people are going to realize that LGBT people are shifting once-held truths and dynamics just slightly. The new elements we bring to sports should be embraced, not rejected. Brown now understands that at a deep level. While Prairie View A&M just dodged one lawsuit, it will be interesting to see if they simultaneously invited another.
