A Vermont Christian school that is barred from participating in the state sports league after it withdrew its girls basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team has taken its case to a federal appeals court.

A Vermont Christian school that is barred from participating in the state sports league after it withdrew its high school girls basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team has taken its case to a federal appeals court.

Mid Vermont Christian School, of Quechee, forfeited the Feb. 21, 2023, game, saying it believed that the transgender player jeopardized “the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”

The executive council of the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs school sports and activities, ruled the following month that the school had violated the council’s policies on race, gender and disability awareness, and therefore was ineligible to participate in future games.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    81·
    4 months ago

    “No religious school or their students and parents should be denied equal access to publicly available benefits simply for holding to their religious beliefs,” Ryan Tucker, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement.

    When your beliefs are outmoded and harmful to innocent students you’re wrong and you aren’t a part of the society we are building. Ostracization is appropriate.

    In June, a federal judge in Vermont denied a request by the school and some students and parents to be readmitted to the state sports association. U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford wrote that the state is unlikely to be found to have violated the school’s First Amendment rights, including its right to free exercise of religion, because it applies its athletic policy uniformly and doesn’t target religious organizations for enforcement or discrimination.

    Good. Go play in a league for hateful bigots and leave everyone else alone. Also, stop wasting the courts’ time.