A Christian school in Vermont has been excluded from competing in future tournaments after its girls basketball team withdrew from a match to protest against a transgender athlete on the opposing team.
The Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) ruled in a statement that the Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) can no longer participate in any VPA-sponsored competitions across all sports because the school violated two human-rights policies concerning “gender identity” and “commitment to racial, gender-fair, and disability awareness.”
“The result was a determination that policies have been violated at the school level, thus there is an immediate determination of ineligibility for Mid Vermont Christian in VPA sanctioned activities and tournaments going forward,” the VPA executive council said.
MVCS was set to play the Long Tail Mountain Lions last month before the former decided not to compete out of concerns of “fairness” by forcing their female students to compete against another school’s transgender athlete.
“We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players. Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general,” MVCS Head of School Vicky Fogg said in a statement.
However, Vermont law permits transgender females to play in girls sports leagues and prohibits discrimination based upon gender identity.
“Transgender and gender nonconforming students are to be provided the same opportunities to participate in physical education as are all other students,” according to the Vermont Agency of Education’s “Continuing Best Practices for Schools Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students”.
This comes as transgender students in sports have been the subject of debate about whether biologically born male athletes should compete against naturally-born women in sporting events.
House Republicans have recently advanced two bills that would prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The bills, H.R. 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act, and H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, have both advanced to the House floor.
H.R. 5 aims to “ensure the rights of parents are honored and protected in the Nation’s public schools,” while H.R. 734 seeks to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 “to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
