Rene Portland

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Rene Muth Portland is currently the women's basketball coach at Penn State. Portland is highly regarded for her coaching abilities, making several Sweet 16 appearances, including a Final Four in 2000.

Portland has been head coach at Penn State since 1980, following brief stints at St. Joseph's and Colorado. Prior to that, she was one of the star players at Immaculata College, one of the early powers in women's college basketball.

[edit] Controversy on Homosexuality

Portland has spoken against lesbian activity in her team in 1986:

One of the first things Penn State coach Rene Portland brings up during a recruiting visit with a perspective player and her parents is lesbian activity.

"I will not have it in my program," Portland said. "I bring it up and the kids are so relieved and the parents are so relieved. But they would probably go without asking the question otherwise, which is really dumb."

—The Chicago Sun-Times, 16--June--1986 [1][2]

The statement was made prior to adoption of Penn State's policy on Nondiscrimination and Harassment [3] in 1991.

In 2006, one of the team's former players, Jennifer Harris, accused Portland of removing her from the team because of her perceived sexual orientation. Harris has filed an active federal lawsuit against Penn State and Portland. An internal review by Penn State has found Portland created a "hostile, intimidating, and offensive environment" based in Harris's perceived sexual orientation. She was fined $10,000 and ordered to attend diversity training sessions. She was also put on notice that there would be "zero tolerance" for future violations of Penn State's nondiscrimination policy.

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