Jane Meyer, the former Univ. of Iowa athletic administrator suing the school for gender and sexual-orientation discrimination, testified in court today that she noticed gay coaches would often be fired when they started living their lives more openly.
That, in turn, drove her to keep her relationship with the then-field hockey coach, Tracey Griesbaum, a secret from other administrators. If she was an out lesbian, she figured, she would never get ahead in the straight- and male-dominated world of elite college sports.
“You have to be very careful with your personal life unless you’re heterosexual,” Meyer testified, according to the Washington Post.
As we’ve said over and over again on Outsports, much of the problem in sports lies with the people in suits, the entrenched stalwarts of athletic departments and team front offices so entangled in sports they have not grown with the times. It wouldn’t be surprised if that was going on at the Univ. of Iowa.
