A Letter From the Director
Dear It Takes A Team! Supporter:
It's been nearly three years since I became director of It Takes A Team! in February 2005, and as we approach our three-year anniversary it seems like a great time to reflect on our accomplishments. I want you, our supporters, to know what we've been doing and to share in our pride in the It Takes A Team! accomplishments. I also want to challenge you to become directly involved with It Takes A Team!Challenge for athletic supporters: Help It Takes A Team! raise $5,000 in the next two months so together we can get the ...
Women's Sports Foundation Applauds Decision to Award $5.8 Million to Female Coach for Title IX Retaliation
On Monday, July 9, the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno Central Division, awarded former volleyball coach Linda L. Vivas $5,852,069 in damages in her lawsuit against California State University at Fresno (CSU-Fresno). In what is believed to be the largest judgment ever awarded to a coach in a Title IX case, the jury found that Vivas was fired in retaliation for her speaking out on behalf of her students and program that CSU-Fresno was in violation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities offered by institutions that are recipients of federal ...
Baby Makes 3 For Coach and Partner
Reprinted Courtesy of OutSports.com
Coach's False Statements Causing Big Problems
NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN RIGHTS CALLS ON PENN STATE TO RETRACT FALSE STATEMENTS OR FACE LITIGATION
(PHILADELPHIA, PA) – The National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a letter to Penn State today demanding that the University publicly retract the retaliatory statement issued last Friday October 14, 2005 by Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland. “It is shocking that an institution of Penn State's caliber would respond to the serious legal issues raised by Ms. Harris not by investigating her claims, but rather by launching a malicious and retaliatory public campaign to falsely smear the reputation of a dedicated young athlete ...
Participation of Transsexual Athletes in Women's Sports
The Women's Sports Foundation supports the position of the International Olympic Committee on the participation of transsexual athletes in elite level sport. In May of 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) set strict requirements for the participation of athletes who have undergone sex reassignment (male to female or female to male). The IOC announced that such “transsexual” athletes, defined as athletes who have undergone sex reassignment surgery and hormonal therapy would be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games under the following conditions:1. Any “individuals undergoing sex reassignment of male to female before puberty should be regarded as girls and women” ...
International Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference: Looking Past the Labels
The International Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference sheds light on significant issues and concerns facing gay athletes
Lesbian Couple Fights Playing-Time Discrimination by their Country Club
Read a report about another private golf club and the discrimination a same- sex couple has gone through just simply by wanting to join. ...
It Takes A Team: Eliminating Homophobia in Sports
The Foundation's innovative program designed to eliminate homophobia in sports
Gender Testing - Gender Verification at Elite Sports Competitions: The Foundation Position
Background Chapter 3 of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Code mandates that all female competitors shall be subject to gender verification. Historically, the IOC has mandated gender verification for female athletes since the mid-1960s. In 1990, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), the international governance organization for track and field, called for the abandonment of gender verification and convened a Working Group of international experts, including ethicists, sports governors, physicians, and women athletes in support of this position. The Working Group concluded that:
women with birth defects of the sex chromosomes did not possess an unfair advantage and should ...
Playing in the Closet: Homophobia in Sports
Both players and coaches have been victims of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- an issue that not only affects the LGBT community, but all female athletes.
Gender Verification No More?
While there has been abundant publicity regarding the testing of Olympic athletes for use of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, it is not well known that for more than 30 years the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has required all female competitors to undergo "gender verification." The purported rationale is to detect male imposters who would have an unfair competitive advantage. In point-of-fact, genuine imposters have not been uncovered; however, gender verification procedures have resulted in substantial harm to a number of unassailable women athletes born with relatively rare genetic abnormalities that affect development of the gonads or the expression of secondary sexual ...
Homophobia - Homophobia and Sport Policy Recommendations: The Foundation Position
SAFETY
No athletic department, sport organization personnel, athlete, parent, fan or school community should harass or threaten (anti-gay slurs, pushing or shoving, property damage, graffiti directed at a particular person or group) a coach or athlete on the basis of sexual orientation
Lesbian and bisexual coaches and athletes should be able to participate on a team or in an athletic department or setting free of hostility
Organization or institution Sexual Harassment Policies should include specific references to harassment based on sexual orientation.
Coaches, athletes, other athletic department personnel, or students who participate in the harassment of lesbia