David Jones has a long column about Rene Portland and her infamous and oft-repeated quote from the 1986 Chicago Sun-Times. Jones suggests that when Rene said she would not have "it" on her team, she meant lesbian "recruitment," not lesbians.

(It's unclear to me whether such a view is really "better." Fears of "homosexual recruitment" reflect notions of homosexuality as predatory and diseased. It's just a slightly different flavor of prejudice. But that's a long story...)

You can see the Sun-Times article in full here (pdf) via the PSU Pride document archive.

Jones's interpretation of the '86 quote is plausible — I'm not sure he's right, but he might be.

But if Jones means to argue more generally that Rene only has a problem with "recruitment," he's off base. The '86 quote is just one piece of evidence. It is a brick, and as we say in evidence law, a brick is not a wall.

In addition to the 1986 Sun-Times quote, we also have statements from a growing list of former players and staff: Harris, Bland, Davies, McConnell-Serio, Yedsena, Longenecker, McGovern, Gulas, and Demuth. None of them has ever suggested that Rene only hates "aggressive lesbians" as opposed to all lesbians.

We also have Rene's own responses to Longman, to Lipsyte, and to Sandoval. They are vague and elliptical, but they don't suggest any of Jones's nuance.

Jones would like to ask Rene:

How do you feel about homosexuality? Both on your team and in general? Is it abhorrent to you? Does it repulse you? Is it wrong?

So would I. But she'll never answer those questions. So all we can do is look at the evidence we have — not a single piece in isolation, but all of it together.

It says a great deal. The wall seems to get higher each month.