{"id":21149,"date":"2024-03-07T16:25:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T21:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=21149"},"modified":"2024-03-07T16:25:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T21:25:15","slug":"a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","title":{"rendered":"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Adobe Stock | Inset: Fox News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions. The situation began February 2023 when Mid-Vermont Christian school forfeited a game against a team that had a male identifying as female playing. The Vermont Principals\u2019 Association (VPA) then banned the school from future VPA-sponsored tournaments, saying the school had violated the VPA\u2019s \u201cgender-fair policies<\/a>.\u201d \u201cMid-Vermont Christian School has every right to teach its beliefs to its own students,\u201d the VPA wrote in a statement to CNN<\/a>. \u201cIt cannot, however, impose those beliefs on students from other public and private schools; deny students from other schools the opportunity to play; or hurt students from other schools because of who those students are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school has since filed suit, arguing that the VPA is discriminating against them due to their religious beliefs on gender. The school alleged in its lawsuit that, \u201cThe VPA won\u2019t even allow the School and its students to participate in co-ed academic competitions like the Geo-Bee, Science and Math Fair, and Debate and Forensics League-all because the School believes biological boys are boys and cannot affirm otherwise.\u201d\u00a0 The lawsuit asserts that the state cannot force its own views on gender onto a private institution. \u201cThe 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 Vermont\u2019s tuition program and the State\u2019s athletic association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basketball coach Chris Goodwin has stood by his decision to forfeit the game. \u201cAfter discussions with the administration and our players and parents, we decided that instead of going against our religious beliefs that \u2026 there are differences between male and female, we are created differently, we decided to forfeit that game and withdraw from the tournament,\u201d he said. Speaking to Fox News<\/em><\/a>, he said the decision was about fairness and safety to the girls. \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 make a practice, and I run those practices, and boys just play at a different speed, a different force\u2026 than the girls play,\u201d he said. He called allowing biological males to play against girls \u201cirresponsible.\u201d The team had been aware of the transgender student but had not had to face the student\u2019s school until the playoffs. Mid-Vermont Christian\u2019s lawyer, Ryan Tucker of The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), called the VPA\u2019s actions a \u201cpurge.\u201d \u201cThe state is basically attempting to purge individuals like Chris and other family members in the state, from public discourse, from the ability\u2026 to speak out\u2026 on issues of significant, public concern,\u201d he affirmed. \u201cWe’re very confident that we’re going to prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school is just the latest example of teams struggling against the role of transgender students in sports. A Vermont snowboard coach sued his employer after allegedly being fired<\/a> for saying that men and women are different after the girls\u2019 snowboard team competed against a team with a male who identified as female. He was then brought into the superintendent\u2019s office and fired for allegedly violating the school\u2019s harassment policy. The coach, who was also represented by the ADF, was able to eventually reach a settlement with the school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions. The situation began February 2023 when Mid-Vermont Christian school forfeited a game against a team that had a male identifying as female playing. The Vermont Principals\u2019 Association (VPA) then banned the school from future VPA-sponsored tournaments, saying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":21155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T21:25:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/03\/chris-godwin-vt-basketball_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Fox-News.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned","description":"A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned","og_description":"A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-03-07T21:25:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/03\/chris-godwin-vt-basketball_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Fox-News.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned","name":"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/03\/chris-godwin-vt-basketball_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Fox-News.jpg","datePublished":"2024-03-07T21:25:15+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-07T21:25:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"A Christian girls\u2019 basketball team in Vermont is suing after the whole team was banned from further competitions.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/03\/chris-godwin-vt-basketball_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Fox-News.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/03\/chris-godwin-vt-basketball_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Fox-News.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock | Inset: Fox News"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/03\/a-christian-girls-basketball-team-refused-to-play-a-trans-player-now-theyve-been-banned#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Christian Girls\u2019 Basketball Team Refused to Play a Trans Player, Now They\u2019ve Been Banned"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","caption":"Leigh Pizzutilla"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21161,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21149\/revisions\/21161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}