{"id":11826,"date":"2024-02-28T12:58:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T07:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/28\/christian-school-gets-banned-by-state-after-forfeiting-game-against-trans-player\/"},"modified":"2024-02-28T12:58:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T07:28:45","slug":"christian-school-gets-banned-by-state-after-forfeiting-game-against-trans-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/28\/christian-school-gets-banned-by-state-after-forfeiting-game-against-trans-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian School Gets Banned by State after Forfeiting Game against Trans Player"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The head coach at a private Christian school in Vermont is speaking out after the state booted his girls\u2019 basketball team from state-sponsored tournaments because the school refused to participate in a girls\u2019 sports competition with a biological male.<\/p>\n

The controversy started in the 2022-23 school year when Mid Vermont Christian School withdrew from the first round of the girls\u2019 basketball tournament instead of playing against a team that had a biological boy who identified as a girl. That player, according to court documents, is at least six feet tall and taller than any player on the Mid Vermont Christian and can be seen in footage from other games \u201crepeatedly blocking girls’ shots, throwing elbows, and knocking girls down.\u201d Mid-Vermont Christian said it was concerned for its players\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n

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The Vermont Principals\u2019 Association, which runs the tournament and the state\u2019s athletic competitions, responded by booting Mid Vermont Christian School from all state-sponsored sporting events and from the association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mid Vermont Christian School then sued the Vermont Principals\u2019 Association in federal court, claiming religious discrimination. The school also alleged the association was violating its own fairness policy. The school had played in the association for 28 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Goodwin, coach of the girls’ team, told Fox News<\/a> that the issue is about safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve got four daughters. I’ve coached them all at one point in their careers playing high school basketball. I’ve also filled in for the boy’s coach when he can’t do a practice, and I’ve run those practices — and boys just play at a different speed, a different force, then the girls play,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cIt’s a different game. So I would never bring my girls to a boy’s practice or have the boys come into our practice and say to them, \u2018Hey, we’re going to scrimmage today; we’re gonna go game speed.\u2019 Because it is just asking for an injury, and it’d be irresponsible on my part to put my girls and my daughter on the court to play against male athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin said he does not regret the school\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter discussions with the administration and our players and parents, we decided that instead of going against our religious beliefs that — there are differences between male and female and we are created differently — we decided to forfeit that game and withdraw from the tournament. And at that point, the state of Vermont governing body kicked us out of all athletic competitions in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State of Vermont has adopted its own orthodoxy on human sexuality and gender,\u201d the lawsuit<\/a> says. \u201cSimply put, the State believes sex is mutable and biological differences do not matter. 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 \u2026 the State’s athletic association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mid Vermont Christian School believes \u201cGod uniquely creates each person as either a male or female, one’s sex is determined at creation and based on biology, and that sex is immutable,\u201d the suit says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis civil rights action,\u201d the suit says, \u201cseeks to protect a Christian school and its students and parents from unconstitutional religious discrimination and hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo Courtesy: \u00a9Getty Images\/Wavebreakmedia<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press,\u00a0<\/em>Christianity Today<\/em>, <\/em>The Christian Po<\/em>st, <\/em>the\u00a0<\/em>Leaf-Chronicle<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>the Toronto Star<\/em> and\u00a0<\/em>the Knoxville News-Sentinel<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n