Update:
Belmont University released a second statement late Friday afternoon regarding “the conclusion of Coach Lisa Howe’s employment at Belmont University.”
According to the statement, the university and Howe agree that she “did not ‘resign’ from her employment. Neither was she dismissed.”
The statement, released through Belmont communications director Greg Pillon, said the university wanted to address inaccuracies on the part of the media: “Both Coach Howe and the university wish to correct the errors and move forward without further media distraction.”
Howe was also quoted in the joint statement saying “I do want to express my deep gratitude to the players, their families, the alumnae and faculty members who have come forward to express their concern over my leaving. I want them to know that I am extremely proud to have had the opportunity to get to know and work with all of them.”
In a statement released Thursday night, Belmont Athletic Director Mike Strickland said that Howe had “informed the university of her intent to conclude her employment at Belmont,” saying that “this was a decision that Coach Howe made.”
This is absent from the current statement.
”
Update
Belmont has not released any additional information today regarding the dismissal of women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe. Howe told team members last week that she and her partner were expecting a baby in May, and she was many sources on and off campus, including team members, have said that she was fired or forced to resign.
Since the Vision reported the story at 6 p.m. Thursday, the news has spread quickly across social and traditional media platforms. The Tennessean released a story on Howe’s early this morning, and local television news outlets have also reported on the issue. The Nashvillest blog, Nashville Scene and City Paper have also posted stories and blog posts about the situation on their websites.
On Twitter and Facebook, the story has spread between friends and reached several national media outlets, the most prominent of them being The Advocate, an LBGT issues magazine, and some Twitter users are asking celebrities like Joy Behar and Perez Hilton to pick up story.
Update
At 9:45 p.m., Belmont communications director Greg Pillon e-mailed the Belmont Vision with official statements from the university regarding Coach Lisa Howe’s exit from Belmont.
“Women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe has informed the university of her intent to conclude her employment with Belmont. This was a decision Coach Howe made,” Belmont athetics director Mike Strickland said in the statement. “Belmont is so grateful for the work Coach Howe has done and her commitment to women’s soccer and Belmont Athletics.”
The e-mail also included a statement from Howe: “I appreciate Belmont University giving me the opportunity to lead the women’s soccer program for the last six seasons… I want to thank all the student-athletes who worked so hard for and dedicated themselves to me and the program. I am at a point in my life where I am satisfied to move on, and I wish the Belmont women’s soccer team continued success.”
6:00 p.m.
Belmont women’s soccer head coach Lisa Howe was dismissed earlier this week, just days after she told team members that she and her same-sex partner would have a child.
Senior forward Erica Carter– who started for Howe her entire college career– said the team is shocked and angered by the coach’s firing.
As of early Thursday evening, the university had not released a statement that confirmed Howe’s dismissal. Earlier in the day, Carter said no one representing the university had met with team members to discuss the situation with them.
Carter and other players on the team held a members-only meeting after they learned through unofficial sources that the coach was removed from her position. Carter said they were unified in their stance against Howe’s firing.
“The general feeling on the team when everyone heard was like a wildfire spread of fury and anger,” she said. “We were all talking in groups and upset and outraged that they would take our coach away after all that she has done for the program and for us individually.”
“We all just felt that this was unfair, and it wasn’t done in the right way,” Carter said.
According to Carter, earlier today Howe said good-bye to her players in a tear-filled meeting. Carter told the Vision that Howe wrote “No Regrets” on the board in the locker room and apologized to her players because of the situation. She gave each player a Christmas gift because she wouldn’t be able to attend their party.
Howe, who came to Belmont in 2005, was still listed as head coach on the Athletics Department website Thursday afternoon. According to her bio on the site, “The program has not only soared on the field but continues to excel in the classroom under Howe’s leadership.” More than 30 players have earned Atlantic Sun All-Academic honors. Howe’s teams have posted a 52-48-16 record.
While there has been no word from the university on Howe’s dismissal, it follows a recent ruling by Belmont administration that denied recognition of Bridge Builders, an LGBT issues group, as an official student organization.
Tennessee does not have a law that prohibits firing employees based on sexual preference.
As a graduate from the School of Religion, I AM shocked. And disappointed. I never heard an ounce of this bigotry from a single one of my professors– the opposite, in fact–and can only assume, if it’s true, that it came from the top… despite the distaste of students and professors alike.
One way or another, they’re going to need to explain this. “She chose to leave” isn’t going to cut it if the choice you gave her was “or be fired” or “here’s some money to keep quiet.”
This is gross.
This is such a disgrace to have been apart of the athletic program there and I am ashamed that it shows you are based off prejudices and not merit or human characteristics.
Students (and caring faculty) should consider unfurling banners of support for Lisa Howe out Belmont’s windows. As previously suggested, divert alum donations to the HRC. YOU can make a difference.
Bravo and thanks to everyone who has spoken against this outrageous injustice!
Question: are the versus quoted against gays from the old Bible or the New Bible of the revolutionary man of love, Jesus?
The Belmont administration are a bunch of hypocrites. The school has well over a hundred of gay and lesbian students on campus but the administration won’t let them form a LGBT student group. Now they fire the soccer coach because she is a lesbian.
Yet…..the administration doesn’t have any problem admitting these students or cashing their tuition checks. The coach should have had a lawyer in the meeting. The school pressured her into signing an agreement that she was resigning. If she hadn’t done that, the school would have had to find some kind of “for cause” reason for firing her. The tactics of the administration have effectively negated a federal discrimination lawsuit the coach could have had.
The music industry in Nashville has thousands of gay/lesbian members in the community. I’d say the best way to let Belmont “see the light” is through the pocketbook. Boycott Belmont. The Audio Engineering Society and other many, many other groups that rent event/exhibition/meeting space at Belmont should cancel or refuse to rebook for the coming years until Belmont realizes their error.
Studios that get their free slave/interns from Belmont should immediately call the school and tell administrators that they will be getting their interns from MTSU and SAE in the future-until the policy at Belmont changes.
It works both ways-if Belmont administration refuses to recognize and accept the gay community, those who DO recognize these individuals can (and should) refuse to recognize and support Belmont.
Belmont University, as a school founded on Christian values, should hold their employees to higher standard of living.
There’s always room for tolerance, but there are limits and certainly some area’s that are just none negotiable.
Having a professor or coach openly living a homosexual lifestyle, further pushing the norms by chosing to have a baby inside a same-sex partnership, is not something anyone with a rational thought would be shocked or surprised learning that Belmont would consider that crossing the line of acceptable behavior.
This is a coach working for a Christian university that has long standing stated expectations in this area.
The university is called to teach and nurture young men and women in a Chrsitan tradition. Living the homosexual lifestyle not to mention bringing a pregnancy into a same-sex relationship, is a little outside the traditional expectations for an employee, much less coach at a Christian university.
I’m not sure that would be something openly embraced at a secular school.
Believing something is wrong and expecting people to live to a moral standard isn’t bigotry. Not agreeing with someone isn’t biogotry or hate. You can disagree with someone’s position or lifestyle and not hate them or treat them in a bigoted way.
I don’t know all of the details, but it appears that Mike Strickland might not have necessarily handled this situation with the best of tact. I’m not sure anyone could completely be prepared for this type of senario. Its not everyday that a women’s soccer coach at a Christian university walks into the AD’s office to proclaim that she and her same-sex partner are pregnant!
It isn’t a question of how good of a coach she was or is. Its a question of how she is represting the university and what she is teaching the team. She was teaching them its ok to live a way that is contrary to the beliefs of the university.
If you want to get upset at Belmont, add the several hundred other university’s across the country that would have the same standard.
No one is telling you how you should believe or act. If you want to open a Christian university that fully embraces this lifestyle then do so.
Jo Ann makes many good points. I do not know the particulars of the situation outside this article, but it seems to me if Belmont is going to hold their current stance on this issue (which they are entitled to as a private university), then the coach should have been let go, or never hired, as soon as the university was made aware of her lifestyle. The timing and details of the situation seem fairly arbitrary on the university’s part and reflect poorly upon the athletic department. Regardless of your thoughts on the issue, the coach was undoubtedly aware of the university’s stance on homosexuality and other moral and ethical issues prior to taking the job, and likely signed an agreement to abstain from certain lifestyle choices. She wouldn’t have had a legitimate case upon which to file a lawsuit when she was dismissed for actions that run contrary to university’s values.
As for Judith: The apostle Paul, who authored much of the New Testament, refers to homosexual practices as immoral. Jesus didn’t specifically comment on the issue to my knowledge. Biblical support favors Belmont’s stance, if you’re going to use that as the basis of your argument. I feel obligated to note as well that there is no such thing as a New Bible and an old Bible.
@Cathy–
Don’t really know how to take your comment that I might be Belmont PR undercover. I am not affiliated with Belmont “PR.” I do take issue with the comment about it not being worth it to respond to my post. Sounds a little discriminatory to me–I mean, just because my opinion is different from yours and many others does not mean that it is less valid. I still have a right to enter into open discussion, I would think.
As for my antiquated views, they have been around for awhile. In fact, the Christian church from its beginnings has maintained that homosexual behavior is sinful and not appropriate for members of the Christian community. While many of her students disagree, the leaders of Belmont University have maintained that they are a community that is intentionally Christian. The coach and her partner had already made the decision to begin a family, as a baby is already on the way. While I disagree with such a decision, in our country she has the right to make it. But when the administration was brought into the loop they had no choice but to allow her to resign or to release her. To allow her to remain would be to condone her lifestyle choices. They could not do that and remain true to Belmont’s identity as s Christian university.
@ Jimmy – You have every right to comment on here, just accept the fact that your conservative regurgitation of prejudice and discriminatory beliefs are going to be attacked. For a very long time the Christian church did now allow interracial marriage for a long time, citing Biblical references to inter-race marriages being forbidden. But obviously we know that that is an antiquated point of view that is considered discriminatory and despicable. She was not “recruiting” people to her lifestyle, nor was she preaching for or against it. Stop living in fear or homosexuality and practice the love and acceptance that Jesus taught. To allow her to remain would NOT be condoning anything, rather it would be allowing her to live her lifestyle in peace without fear of losing her job.
” I feel sorry for the next student worker who calls me asking for a donation, because she/he is going to get an ear full”
Please don’t punish the students because of problems you have with the administration. We’re just as angry as you are but to deny us scholarships or classroom tools or even money for the very soccer ball the women’s soccer team uses is just wrong.
“it wasn’t done in the right way” …
what is the right way to fire someone for being gay?
I am ashamed of my school.
@ Micah – Belmont is receiving federal grants and aid, not to mention using public lands in Nashville, and is arguably not a TRUE private university that has complete autonomy. For example:
http://forum.belmont.edu/umac/archives/012113.html
http://forum.belmont.edu/umac/archives/004430.html
Belmont is using TAX PAYER’S DOLLARS to promote a certain agenda. The relationship between this money and Belmont’s “Christian” designation could go to a high court on its own if someone had the time, money, and energy to sue. There are numerous problems Belmont has under its belt right now. Lisa Howe’s forced resignation serves as a painful but needed eye-opener to a handful of Belmont’s unlawful and disgraceful practices.
Maybe the school is within it’s legal rights, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
Superstition and ignorance is going to give in to tolerance and inclusiveness over time. It won’t happen fast enough for me and my friends, but it will happen.
I hope better things happen for this young family. They deserve better than to have to work for a bunch of 19th century style bible-thumpers.
Wow, Jo Ann!
So, you can’t be Christian AND gay?
Having a long-term committed relationship with one person and deciding to start a family with that same person is somehow immoral?
It’s not like Coach Howe slept with a student or got caught drugged out and tricking on a corner downtown. She apparently believes in marriage and family. How is this immoral? Just because it doesn’t match up with your (or Belmont’s) version of what’s moral?
Perhaps what Belmont and other anti-gay persons and groups need to do, if they feel so strongly against gay (even those of us who are monogamous and with families), is come out of your own cowardous closets and state clearly that it doesn’t matter how monogamous or family-values oriented you are, if you’re gay…you’re not welcome. Just say it and stop hiding behind vague “morals and values” statements. It’s confusing as a gay person to see and hear such things when how we are living is perfectly moral to US and the God we serve. If your God says something else, then say it. Be courageous.
On a final thought, who in their right mind, with a baby on the way, would willingly walk away from a job? My partner and I had a baby several years ago. There’s NO WAY I’d leave my job unless I’m forced to go. Something stinks here and it’s not Coach Howe’s morals or values. Me thinks it’s Belmonts. :/
@Bill – This is an absolutely terrible idea. Why punish the students at the school who obviously don’t agree with this policy? The students trying to network throughout the Nashville music industry shouldn’t be denied opportunities because of a bad decision made by the school’s athletic department.
I am disgusted at this news. How in any way does this action reflect the teachings of Jesus? How is Belmont showing love to this woman. The way to deal with sin is not to exclude a person from the body of Christ, but to show them love, and allow them to grow into the person God intended. We are ALL sinners. We are all flawed. Belmont can’t pick and chose which sin is acceptable and which is not. Christ did not put one sin above another. Neither should we.
Needed: women’s soccer coach with integrity who puts players first; head-coach experience – especially in building a team from scratch – a plus. Not to benefit from the BU admin bigotry and heartlessness, but hoping this coach finds suitable employment quickly. My sympathy also to the returning players: just consider the personal characteristics (and ability to rationalize) necessary to take the BE women’s soccer coach position now.
https://www.csucifacultyjobs.com (“search jobs,” Athletics)
Roxanna is spot on.
“My sins aren’t that bad and I’m sure God will show ME grace because he loves me (AND I am leadership at a (supposedly) Christian university), but YOUR sins… well… we just can’t have that.”
What?! Wow. I’ve never heard of Jesus responding like that, nor did he ask anyone to ‘pretend’ they were someone else. “Look, I know you are a sinner, but just don’t mention it and we’re all good. However, should you ever mention it or should you be honest about who you really are, I will be ashamed and won’t be able to be seen with you. Got it?” Nope. Didn’t happen.
She wasn’t selling drugs to students. She wasn’t hitting on students (which is more than I can say about some of the straight male coaches I had throughout my life – who were never asked to leave), she wasn’t pushing an ‘agenda’ on anyone. It sounds like she was a good coach who wanted to be transparent when responding to questions about HER life. *gasp* I know, I know. The horribleness of it all.
“…Your word to spell is Belmont.”
“Belmont. B-I-G-O-T-R-Y. Belmont.”
“Yes, that is correct, you pass to the next round…”
Nice one, Belmont. Way to make Nashville proud.
As any of you who have ready my previous posts can see, I am just as disgusted as the next rational person about this whole situation. But I am concerned with the people who are ready to give a student worker a piece of his/her mind when they call and ask for donations, or who vow never to give any money to Belmont ever again. In both of these scenarios, and the one depicted in this article, the only people who lose are the students. In the events of this situation at Belmont, students who are preparing for final exams are distracted by the University’s wishes to promote a close-minded lifestyle. In the event of losing donation money, don’t STOP giving, just choose what your money goes towards. Why not start a small scholarship fund (it may have to be outside of the University) that helps a LGBT student in need? If you loved the program you studied in and you know the faculty in that area are against this decision, designate your funds to that particular program. I know there are MANY faculty, alumns and students who are enraged by this decision. Rather than using hate to fight hate, be the example rather than fighting in the trenches. Let’s use this situation to promote a positive agenda, whether the University accepts it or not. A small number of people made this decision and set this policy….let’s not let the rest of the student body, the faculty or the other great programs that are doing great things in the community stuffer because of the actions of hateful people.
To all the students of Belmont, I am sorry you all will have to pay for the consequences of your administrations actions! They should have thought about the consequences before they decided to make such a harsh decision. It is unfair to you all, but from this day forward I will NO longer support any thing that has to deal with that school. It is a disgrace and the faculty and staff who stand behind Belmonts decision should be ashamed of themselves.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance” -Derek Bok
This is a costly move that Belmont decided to make and I hope they will pay for it for a LONG time!
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Did it ever occur to anyone that in the same way Gays and Lesbians want a place in which their lifestyle is fully supported, Christians that view homosexuality as immoral may want an environment that fully allows them to be submerged in community that teaches a Bible based perspective, drawn from both the New and Old Testament? And why, when there are so many other PUBLIC schools that could care less of ones sexual orientation, is it such a big deal for the there to be a school that holds to the value that this is a sin? It’s not about hating anyone or being a bigot! I can still love those who live in action that I disagree with. Disagreement does not equal hatred.
As far as the comments about putting someone out of their job around Christmas time…really? What was Belmont to do, tell her actions could be excused until the Spring? If her actions did not fit under Belmont’s policies now, that is when they should act.
Lastly, why is it that the viewpoint of homosexuality being a sin can so easily be attacked, as well as the people that support it? I’m tired of being called a bigot just because I disagree with someone’s lifestyle. Those who call me this aren’t agreeing with mine either. That doesn’t make the people I disagree with bigots. The name calling should stop. Grow up and have a mature conversation.
Gay people who live chaste lives are the pride of the Church. They are a sign of contradiction, both to self-righteous Christian bigots and to those flaunting lives lived actively in homosexual mortal sin. Christians who proudly follow their feelings of pity, as though their feelings could be more sympathetic than the clear voice of an all-merciful God through the Scriptures, interpreted by the Church (the “pillar and foundation of truth”), are sadly and tragically lost in a sea of propaganda. Chaste homosexuals are lionhearted. They inspire me. I pray most fervently for an abundance of grace and consolation for them as they carry this difficult cross, one they share with both Jesus and Mary (also chaste)and that their reward will be great. God bless them and all of those with the heroic courage to be chaste in this day and age and to dissent from gay dissenters. Truly the Church has the answer to the cross of homosexuality.
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As a friend and neighbor of Belmont, I have been very glad to see so many students and alumni speak up about this issue, so thank you.
Current Student: while there are many people, Christian or otherwise, who disagree as to whether homosexuality is a sin, that disagreement is not really what’s at issue in this case. The problem is that Belmont seems to want it both ways: to publicly present itself to the world as an open, welcoming space where diversity is embraced, but to privately demand that its employees (and students?) lie about who they are and punish them when they see fit.
Jerry Maynard said it very well in the Scene: “If they are attempting to attract students from all over the country and all over the world, from diverse backgrounds, they have to decide whether certain conduct is unbecoming of quote-unquote Belmont faculty, and they have to decide whether they are willing to pay the price that certain communities will feel unwelcome if their code of conduct will turn certain communities off. That’s a decision that they make.”
And the issue here is that Belmont has tried to avoid making that decision.
You’re correct, though, that believing homosexuality is a sin does not make you a bigot. Insisting that homosexuals should be treated differently because they are homosexuals, however, is definitely discrimination.
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I am sorry to hear this as a parent of a student we are considering sending to Belmont.This is what has forced lgbt population into marriages to have kids in the past or keep their true orientation a secret. PLEASE, everyone knows that in sports, music and theatre, and EVERY walk of life the LGBT community is making our lives a better place. I went on a preview day for this college among several others with our child.I thought things seemed a little “too” perfect although I was impressed by the students we met and faculty members. I joked about “Belmontland “. Then I did more research on the net and found this. Will our kids be boycotted for internships or other networking. I liked the school but they did go on and on about the important thing wasn’t what you choose as a career but that you are a good person.I think they need to get more diversity on that campus FAST. And teach the kids how you treat people who are different than you is the hallmark also of what a “good” person is.