Because the girls’ basketball team at a Vermont Christian school refused to play against a team with a transgender-identifying boy, all athletes at their school—girls and boys—will suffer the consequences.
The Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA), representing 300 schools across the state, has kicked out Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) from its league. That includes all the school’s teams and athletes.
The school originally made the decision to skip a state play-off tournament to avoid pitting its girls against a team with a biological male because of safety concerns, Head of School Vicky Fogg, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Selina Soule (L) and Alanna Smith, student-athletes in Connecticut, were plaintiffs in a 2020 lawsuit alleging unfair competition from biological males who identified as transgender females. (Alliance Defending Freedom)“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” she said in a written statement when the school made the decision.
“Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”
The MVCS girls’ basketball team, seeded 12th, declined to play the Long Trail Mountain Lions, the fifth-seeded team in the tournament. After the Eagles forfeited, the Mountain Lions lost to the Arlington Memorial team.
Because MVCS refused to play the other team, the VPA took action on March 13. It removed all MVCS teams from its 75-school sports league, according to a letter announcing the decision.
Fogg did not respond to requests for comment after the decision to ban all of her school’s teams were banned from participating in the state league.
Jay Nichols, the VPA’s executive director, spoke with The Epoch Times about the issue before the announcement, saying the organization was following state law. He declined to comment after the March 13 decision.
Vermont law states that any place that accommodates the public “shall not, because of the race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity of any person, refuse, withhold from, or deny to that person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of the place of public accommodation.”
This description includes public schools.
In speaking with The Epoch Times before the decision to ban all MVCS athletes, Nichols voiced support for including transgender-identifying children.
“We think that all kids should be included” in sports, Nichols said.
Boys who say they are girls already have played against girl athletes in the league, he said. Parents have sent him letters saying it’s unfair, he said.
Women protest as Pennsylvania transgender athlete Lia Thomas competes in the women’s 200 freestyle final at the NCAA swimming and diving championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta on March 18, 2022. (John Bazemore/AP Photo)But when asked about boys’ inborn strength and speed advantages over girls, he said the VPA and the state of Vermont won’t change their policies.
“It’s Vermont law,” he said. “We’re going to follow the law. It’s also set our policies.”
The VPA’s executive council and executive signed a letter saying Mid Vermont Christian School “is ineligible to participate in VPA activities going forward.”
The reason, the letter noted, was that “the school’s actions do not meet the expectations of the VPA’s policies that include a “commitment to racial, gender-fair, and disability awareness” and a “policy of gender identity.”
Top-tier high-school boy athletes consistently crush female adult Olympic finalists, according to a comparison of performance statistics of 2016 Olympic finalist women and boys participating in the New Balance Nationals Outdoor high-school athletics competition.
Riley Gaines Barker, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied for fifth place against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA Championships in March, speaks at the “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)Clearly, it’s not fair, said Jake Teater, the founder of the athletics website BoysvsWomen.com.
“By allowing boys to play in high school girls’ basketball, we are asking girls to compete against a class of athletes that outperforms the best female athletes who have ever lived,” Teater told The Epoch Times in a written response to a request for comment.
Vermont’s policies on transgenderism don’t follow Olympic standards and National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines on reducing testosterone, Teater wrote.
Those guidelines, put in place on Jan. 18, 2022, say that a sport’s governing body should determine a framework for how transgender athletes can participate in competitions.
Before those guidelines, transgender athletes in women’s sports had to medically suppress their testosterone for a year before competing.
The VPA is following policies popular with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and transgender activists, Teater said.
The ACLU holds the position that there’s nothing unfair about allowing biological men who identify as women to compete in women’s sports.
“Trans athletes vary in athletic ability just like cisgender athletes,” the ACLU states on its website.
Vermont’s policies allow males to compete as females without any mitigation.
The VPA’s first listed policy on sports calls for “respect for and appreciation of” racial differences, sexual orientation, religious differences, and ethnic differences.
The second policy prohibits “discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender.”
A “girl” is any student who says he or she is a girl, according to the VPA’s rules.
The policy adds that this process requires no medical diagnosis. Any appeal of this process goes directly to the VPA.
Vermont law follows the same principle.
And according to the “best practices” of the Vermont Agency of Education (VAE), “All students have a gender identity which is self-determined.”