Vermont has decided that female athletes must be forced to play against biological males no matter the concerns for their safety. If it has its way, one Christian school will be blocked from ever playing any sport in the state.
In 2023, the Mid Vermont Christian School girls’ basketball team forfeited a Division 4 state playoff game against Long Trail School. Long Trail’s girls’ team included Rose Johnson, a 6-foot-1-inch player born male, so Mid Vermont Christian decided to protect its female athletes by refusing to risk their health and safety against a biologically male athlete. Basketball is a contact sport, and biological males playing against girls at the high school level have repeatedly injured opposing players, including at least one case involving Johnson.
As a result, the Vermont Principals’ Association permanently banned Mid Vermont Christian from all school sports sponsored by the state. The VPA claims that Mid Vermont Christian violated state law that schools must ignore biology and recognize boys as girls and that the school discriminated against a boy who identifies as a girl by refusing to play against Johnson’s team. Mid Vermont Christian has spent the last two years fighting the decision in court and is still months away from an appellate court ruling.
The decision by the VPA, the governing body for Vermont high school athletics, is incredibly radical. Even California did not crack down on Granite Hills High School for forfeiting a girls’ soccer game against a transgender athlete in 2022. The VPA was trying to send a message that transgender ideology supersedes the religious beliefs of a private school, the safety of female athletes, and the biological fact that boys are boys and girls are girls.
HEY, USA FENCING, WOMEN SHOULDN’T HAVE TO COMPETE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MALES
Vermont even ruled Mid Vermont Christian ineligible to receive public funds through a state program that allows public funds to go to private schools if there are no public schools in the area. This is all because, again, Mid Vermont Christian will not play into the delusion that boys can be girls.
Mid Vermont Christian has played state-sanctioned sports in Vermont for nearly 30 years. The VPA and the state of Vermont would rather keep student-athletes out of sports than accept that girls’ sports are for girls and girls only. This is a war against truth, and the victims are high school athletes.