Camille LeNoir thought she’d landed a dream job last year, an entryway into the competitive world of coaching college basketball.
She was a former player herself, having starred at the University of Southern California. The WNBA’s Washington Mystics made her a second-round draft pick and she played the game professionally overseas. But since her playing days ended, LeNoir had focused on working with young players. She was excited when her former college coach offered her an assistant position on his staff at New Mexico State University.
She accepted the job, but two days before she was to board a plane for New Mexico, LeNoir’s phone rang. The Aggies’ coach, Mark Trakh, had watched an online video posted in 2011 in which LeNoir discussed her playing career, her religious faith and her sexuality.
For most of her basketball career, LeNoir identified as gay. Now she’s not. In fact, in the video, she said homosexuality was “wrong” and “not worth losing your soul over.”
Trakh retracted the job offer, LeNoir said, and advised her to remove the video if she ever wanted to work in college basketball. LeNoir said she was devastated. She felt she could be an effective coach regardless of what she’d said in that video. And besides, LeNoir figured, hadn’t she already accepted the position?
Washington Post
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