This week, the head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College in Ohio broke her silence about how she was “burned at the stake” for opposing “transgender” biological males in women’s sports.
The coach, Kim Russell, 56, reportedly published an Instagram post congratulating Emma Weyant for being the “real winner” of the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships last year after she came in second place to Will “Lia” Thomas, the “transgender” swimmer who made women feel uncomfortable in their own locker room and robbed them of awards and opportunities.
According to the Independent Women’s Forum, one of Russell’s own players reported her to the school’s athletic director.
“The report triggered a series of lengthy disciplinary meetings and a full-fledged character assassination campaign against her involving Oberlin faculty and the women’s lacrosse team,” IWF noted.
Audio recordings show Oberlin’s associated vice president for athletics, Natalie Winkelfoos, telling Russell that “you fall into a category of people that are filled with hate in the world.”
Another staff member, Creg Jantz, the senior associate director of athletics, told Russell that “it’s acceptable to have your own opinions, but when they go against your college’s beliefs, it’s a problem. For your employment.”
🆕BREAKING: Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College is breaking her silence in an @IWF documentary after being “burned at the stake” for her support of single-sex sports & speaking out against allowing men in women’s sports. https://t.co/n1MPhiM4D5 pic.twitter.com/WgD57sAYxR
— Independent Women's Forum (@IWF) August 29, 2023
As a result, the school told Russell that she needed to write a letter of apology to her team and to the athletic department for believing that a man who believes he is a woman is not a woman.
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“I started to write on and then thought, ‘No. I’m not writing a letter of apology. I’m not sorry,’” she explained. “I will have a conversation with anyone who wants to have a conversation about this.”
“I really believe women should be competing against other biological females,” she added.
The school then forced Russell to have a meeting with her whole team, the athletic director, the Title IX director for their department, with the DEI staffer for their department, and the Title IX and diversity and inclusion director for the whole college.
“Chairs were set up in a huge circle. I felt like I was burned at the stake. I felt like I was stoned and hanged all at the same time. It was, what I would call, the mob mentality,” she explained. “That meeting turned into anybody being able to say anything they didn’t like about my coaching style, or my assistant’s coaching, anything.”
“I love these kids. And to have many of them say all these things that to me, were attacking who I was as a person and…..it made me sad.”
Audio recordings from the meeting show lacrosse players saying they want to see “accountability” for Russell’s post and bringing up issues like “white feminism.”
“Your feminism has to be inclusive for everybody and work for everybody,” one unnamed player said.
“I knew by the end of the meeting that it didn’t matter what I said. There was cognitive dissonance. Nobody would hear me,” Russell said.
Once the season ended, she was handed a letter in a meeting stating that she “needed to change [her] behavior immediately.”
Townhall has covered how several polls in recent years have shown that the majority of Americans oppose allowing biological males who identify as "transgender" to compete in women's sports. The latest Gallup poll on the issue, which was published in June, showed that more Americans now than in 2021 believe that males should not be on women’s sports teams.
“Every time I’ve spoken up, I’ve been silenced. Which, to me, is the opposite of what I thought Oberlin would be. I believe that there are so many people who are afraid of losing their jobs that are just going to do what they have to do to keep working. But instead of difficult conversations, the students will go to a higher up and not talk to a coach, a professor, whoever, and that coach is canceled, fired…because the kids' parents are paying the money and that’s what matters,” Russell concluded.
“It is scientific that biologically males and females are different, period. I don’t believe that biological males should be in women’s locker rooms,” Russell concluded. “Where’s the Me Too movement now?”
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