Camille LeNoir was prepared to close her business in the Los Angeles area, where she trains young basketball players, in order to accept a coaching position at New Mexico State. But two days before boarding an airplane, the job offer was withdrawn. (RM/Courtesy of Camille LeNoir)
By Rick Maese November 1 at 6:11 PM
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?

LeNoir has filed a federal lawsuit charging New Mexico State with discrimination. She says the Aggies’ head coach, Mark Trukh, offered her an assistant coaching position but later revoked the offer. (RM/Courtesy of Camille LeNoir)

“I felt the job was taken away because of my heterosexuality,” LeNoir, 31, said in a recent interview.

LeNoir is suing New Mexico State in U.S. District Court, saying she was discriminated against because of her religious beliefs and sexual identity. New Mexico State acknowledges in court filings that Trakh rescinded the offer but denies any discrimination charges. A federal judge in California allowed the lawsuit to move forward and will preside over a unique case that spans sport, religion and sexuality, and provides a small window into the culture surrounding women’s basketball.

In court filings, New Mexico State says that 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.”