“Burned at the Stake”: Unpacking Disinformation in the Story of a Coach Allegedly “Terminated” For Expressing Anti-Transgender Women Athlete Beliefs

On August 29, 2023, a video testimony entitled ‘Burned at the Stake’: One NCAA Coach’s Battle to Protect Women’s Sport was released. The film was part of a “female athlete storytelling series” developed and funded by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) designed to support the IWF’s stated agenda to “fight to save women’s sports and counter the radical agenda that seeks to erase women” by allowing transgender girls and women on teams that match their identities. The central figure in the video is Kim Russell, then head women’s lacrosse coach at NCAA Division III Oberlin College, who claimed her right to free expression had been suppressed and her employment threatened because of her anti-transgender women athlete views. Less than two weeks after the video was made public Russell was reassigned to work as a manager in Oberlin’s Employee Wellness Program, a position that fit with her background in fitness and wholistic lifestyle. In a statement explaining the decision, the College noted that it was not Russell’s stance on trans women athletes that prompted the change but the breach of trust between Russell and her team after recording them without their knowledge or consent and including those recordings in the video. By October of 2023, Russell had left her job at Oberlin and taken on a new role as an ambassador for the IWF, testifying before a U.S. House Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services about preventing transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In this project, the “Burned at the Stake” video was considered within the larger anti-transgender athlete movement. The strategic manipulation of information in “Burned at the Stake” is examined from the perspective of media framing, agenda-setting, and propaganda and its intended design to amplify a selected message in such a way that those who believe the story on its face are not inclined to question why the story was released when it was; whether a more complete story would affect how all parties are viewed; and whose agenda is being served (McIntyre, 2023).