Denver HS Volleyball Coach Resigns After Being Told To Renounce Being Gay
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A Denver area high school volleyball coach was forced to resign from his job at Valor Christian High School after school administrators learned that he was gay.
Inoke Tonga wrote about his experience in a moving Instagram post Sunday. Tonga detailed his meeting the school’s pastor and athletic director who gave him a choice to “denounce being gay” or lose his job.
“I sat in the room being grilled about how being gay is a ‘danger’ to the school and to the kids,” Tonga wrote. “That with me ‘identifying as a gay man, they can’t put the kids at risk by having me in front of them.’ …
“They even went as far as telling me ‘parents pay too much money to have their kids be coached and taught by someone like you who identifies as a gay man.’”
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Tonga, a Christian, accused the administrators of offering to write an email for him stating that he was “away for personal matters, so that when you make your decision to accept God and our help, you can come back and they don’t have to know of your spiritual battle.”
He wrote that they framed this offer as a way “to ultimately protect you and our kids.”
“I want you to cut off that part of who you think you are,” he wrote that they told him. “Go home and delete any posts on social media that speak about being gay. We want you to realize that you aren’t gay. You need to become a child of God.
“No more goals of getting married to the love of my life who is a man.”
According to Denver ABC7: School officials confirm that the athletic directors were made aware of a Facebook post made by Tonga where he discussed his life as a gay Christian man. “Last week Valor became aware of a Facebook posting by Coach Inoke that suggested he may not support Valor’s beliefs pertaining to sexuality and marriage,” a spokesperson for the school said in a statement. “Valor’s campus pastor and athletic director initiated a conversation with Coach Inoke to explore this matter further. Following this discussion, Coach Inoke provided a statement to Valor in which he concluded that he does not support Valor’s beliefs and he requested a separation from Valor.”
After writing the post, ABC7 says the post has been shared among students and parents at the school who also reached out to Denver7. “And as a parent, I’m very disturbed,” explained one parent who did not want to share her name for fear of retribution to her child who attends the school. “I just want whoever was responsible for this decision to be removed from that school immediately.”
The statement from the school says “Coach Inoke has misrepresented many aspects of this matter,” but the spokesperson for the school declined to explain how.
“I’m more than motivated to become a better coach and just to keep pushing forward even though I get pushed back,” Tonga said.
