The more things change, the more things stay the same. That cliche fits Rene Portland in 2005 as much as it did in 1986, when her first anti-lesbian comments were recorded in print in the Chicago Sun-Times article, "Lesbians in world of athletics."

It is naive to believe that she has changed and has not used negative recruiting and peer pressure to help create a more feminine, perceivably straight environment. In my graduate work, I attempted to interview current female Penn State student athletes who were openly lesbian or bisexual. Of the 600 or so active student athletes, I was only able to find four who were willing to come forward to be included in my research. One had already graduated, and the other three had no eligibility left. If the estimates are right, and 10 percent of the general population is LGBT, then there should have been 60 out of 600 student-athletes who identified as such. Again, I found four.

For those of you who think that some of these student athletes just need to stand up to one or several of their coaches, you are sadly mistaken.

I played basketball in college. I came out after college. Athletes are trained to obey coaches. Athletes are told to follow the coaches' orders or they're not going to find the court. Athletes are not permitted to distinguish what rules to follow and which to disregard.

Don't blame those who have not come forward.Many can't because they want to keep their scholarships and remain Nittany Lions.

So don't sit here and say it's just as easy as coming forward and speaking up.

You have to have power to speak up.