A former women’s basketball pro and college coach says she was denied a job for no longer being gay.
Camille LeNoir thought she nailed and landed what she referred to as a dream job last year.
She was excited when she was offered a gig at New Mexico State University as an assistant coach and even accepted the job.
But then, according to LeNoir, the job offer was retracted after a video of her calling homosexuality “wrong” and “not worth losing your soul over” surfaced.
Previously LeNoir identified as a gay woman, but now she no longer does. The video was posted in 2011 and in it, LeNoir discussed her professional career as an athlete, her religious faith and her sexuality.
When the job offer was retracted, she was advised by the job’s administrators to remove the video if she ever wanted a career in college basketball.
“I felt the job was taken away because of my heterosexuality,” LeNoir, 31, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
LeNoir is currently suing New Mexico State in U.S. District Court for discrimination due to her religious beliefs and sexual identity.
LeNoir’s feelings about homosexuality shared in the video “would have had an adverse impact” on her “ability to effectively coach and recruit players who identify as LGBT.”
“I have not left the basketball world. I know what the culture is like, and that has never affected how I am as a teacher, as a person,” LeNoir said. “I love everybody.”
