OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
A Christian school in Vermont that forfeited a girls’ basketball game due to the other team having a transgender player is now suing after being banned from competition.
The school believes that allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports jeopardizes fairness and player safety.
They argue that the state’s policies on gender and sexuality contradict their religious beliefs and that they are being unfairly targeted. (Trending: Olympic Gold Medalist Sentenced For Jan 6)
“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” said Mid-Vermont Christian School’s Head of School, Vicky Fogg.
Adding, “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”
“Specifically, the school’s actions do not meet the expectations of the VPA’s 1st and 2nd policy, Commitment to Racial, Gender-Fair, and Disability Awareness and Policy of Gender Identity, respectively. Thus, Mid-Vermont Christian school is ineligible to participate in VPA activities going forward,” ruled the athletic organization.
The school filed a lawsuit because they will not follow Vermont’s “orthodoxy on human sexuality and gender. Simply put, the State believes sex is mutable and biological differences do not matter.“
The school’s lawsuit accuses the state of discrimination and unconstitutional behavior.
“The State is entitled to its own views, but it is not entitled, nor is it constitutional, to force private, religious schools across the state to follow that orthodoxy as a condition to participating in Vermont’s tuitioning program and the State’s athletic association,” states the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that, “the VPA requires Mid Vermont Christian to adopt, accept, and speak the State’s views on gender and sexuality, which Mid Vermont Christian will not do.”
“Although the VPA has a boys/girls fairness policy that prohibits boys from competing on girls’ teams, the VPA’s gender identity policies allow biological males to compete on girls’ teams if the male ‘identifies’ as a girl,” the lawsuit said.
“In those situations, the VPA treats the male as a girl for purposes of the fairness policy. 16. The problem is that the VPA is demanding Mid Vermont Christian do the same and view biological males as girls if they so identify, despite the VP A’s boys/girls fairness policy,” continued the lawsuit.
The school claimed that the state is “effectively blacklisting the School from all State-sponsored events in the state, including VPA spring sports for which schools are still creating schedules.”
“The VPA won’t even allow the School and its students to participate in co-ed academic competitions like the Geo-Bee, Science and Math Fair, and Debate and Forensics League-all because the School believes biological boys are boys and cannot affirm otherwise,” the lawsuit said.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the school, claiming that it has been punished for its beliefs and discriminated against for its religious views.
Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel, Ryan Tucker said that Vermont has “repeatedly discriminated against Christian schools and their families for following their religious beliefs.”
“Put simply, Mid Vermont Christian School believes that boys are boys and girls are girls. They have been punished for this belief. No school or parent should have to change their beliefs to participate in athletics or a state tuitioning program,” wrote Tucker in a statement.
“Vermont, through its education agency and sports association, has engaged in unconstitutional discrimination by requiring a Christian school and its students to surrender their religious beliefs and practices in order to receive public funds and compete in sports,” added ADF counsel Jake Reed.
Most Popular:
Walmart Joins ‘Woke’ Companies and Angers Conservatives
WWE Legend Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison
Biden Impeachment Vote Coming To House Floor