By Michael Bielawski
The principal of a school whose student recently was banned from a local sports team due to a transgender-related controversy says the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) decision harms all Vermont students, not just those excluded from interscholastic athletics.
And a legal organization defending the school agrees, saying “the State’s actions are depriving Mid Vermont Christian students of opportunities that thousands of other students receive in the state.”
Mid Vermont Christian School Head of School Vicky Fogg told VDC: “Christian schools and their families have the right to live out their faith. Mid Vermont Christian School should not have to change its religious beliefs and policies for its students to compete in middle school and high school sports.”
She continued about how these policies may be harming students.
“The VPA banning Mid Vermont Christian School from competing in Vermont athletics harms not only its own students but students at other schools who desire to play sports at Mid Vermont through the member-to-member program.”
The Christian school was a resistance point to the transgender-in-sports push in state education policy earlier this year. The school took a stance when an opposing girls’ basketball team included a biological male on its roster and they decided to forfeit the game.
The result was they got the attention of the State’s Principals Association which runs the sports league. The VPA banned the school from participating in its leagues and they argued that the school is violating their policy on gender identity. Fogg told CNN back in March that they intend to appeal the decision.
The policy’s language includes the prohibition of discrimination “based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender.” They also argued that state law affirms this policy.
The result is that 12-year-old Annabella Gordon is not allowed to participate on her local public school’s soccer team, a recreational outlet as well as an opportunity for her to reconnect with old friends.
What are other groups saying?
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker responded to VDC for comment on the matter.
Tucker said, “No student should be excluded from athletics simply because they chose to attend a school with certain religious beliefs. The State’s actions are depriving Mid Vermont Christian students of opportunities that thousands of other students receive in the state. The VPA’s policy is depriving kids of the opportunity to play sports at Mid Vermont Christian and other schools in the area.”
ADF has been in national headlines including for its involvement in a major SCOTUS ruling concerning a gay couple’s wedding cake five years ago. The case involved a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his Christian beliefs. CourtHouseNews.com reported on the matter.
The Biden Administration has also weighed in on the controversy of transgenders in sports recently, it came up at a press conference on Aug. 29. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not explicitly take a stance on the issue, other than to say that the Department of Education is letting schools set their own policies.
“The Department of Education proposed a rule, as you know, that gives schools the flexibility to establish their own athletics policies, and so while establishing guardrails, right, to prevent discrimination against transgender kids,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is something that is incredibly important, that the president wants to make sure that we also do that as well.”
The public was recently polled on the issue as well. According to a recent Gallup poll, almost 70 percent of Americans do not think that biological male athletes should be allowed to compete against women.
In another recent transgender controversy in sports, a high school snowboarding coach filed a lawsuit in July against school officials after he was fired for speaking out about the biological differences between men and women.
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
Categories: Education
I would like to speak on context from the article.
“ADF has been in national headlines including for its involvement in a major SCOTUS ruling concerning a gay couple’s wedding cake five years ago. The case involved a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his Christian beliefs. CourtHouseNews.com reported on the matter.”
I recently shared information from the UN Human Rights Council, Fifty-fifth season, 19 June-14 July 2023, Agenda Item 3, Freedom of religion, and freedom from violence and descrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (A_HRC_53_37_A).
This document explicitly states that religious exemptions needs to be terminated. This document actually references the exemption being granted by the Supreme Court for the baker who refused to make the cake, which proves the UN is tracking and reporting on such cases.
With this understanding, I have to assume that this is part of the reason why the Progressive Democrats are trying to have additional Supreme Court Justices added to the court. If the court is stacked with justices aligned to their political agenda, then these types of religious exemption cases will be denied, which will bring the US into complete control of the United Nations Agenda.
You are absolutely correct, they didn’t get their way so now they want to stack the deck in their favor.
You are completely right Christine! Thank you, I hope more people wake up to the fact before our country is gone.
Thanks Betty. I have made it my mission to read as many United Nation’s and World Economic Forum documents as possible. These entities entered into a partnership in 2019. Their reports and publications, while laborious to read, explain so much about the political and economical agenda driving policy in America.
I agree completely, this country has become a land of pandering to the alphabet gang and other groups. They talk about being loving and all inclusive but only to people who agree with their agenda.
Exactly, and there are extreme penalties for all those who do not share their views. I read an article of an older woman in Portland who questioned providing steroids and surgeries to young children in the name of Gender Affirming Care. The woman was actually scheduled for surgery at the hospital and received a letter stating that the hospital was cancelling her surgery due to her discriminating against LGBTQ+ rights. They stated that she was banned from receiving care from that hospital. I researched and the hospital was an Environmental, Social, and Governence (ESG) rated hospital, which means that the hospital made that decision to comply with the Social component of ESG, which is DEI based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
whenever someone says they are against discrimination it means they want to be the one that decides who is discriminated against. usually that will be someone in a majority group. if you are part of religion then they are probably not concerned with your rights. people have rights not groups
Gender Ideology is the offspring of Eugenics and if it is not rejected now it will be rejected, like Eugenics, after it reaps the same horrific harvest. Both ideologies sprung from academia and seduced a great many well-meaning people who did not understand that when man assumes the role of God it never ends well.
Well said thank you Jeff Weinberg!
We should refer to these insurrectionists as “Orwellian’s” – they covet a world where they can rule without question. Their threat of violence, theft of personal property, loss of civil liberties is their quest. When will Vermont Citizens stop these threats to the Republic? Are the voters that asleep at the wheel? At some point they have to see that their smug support for these high Progressive ideals requires them to lose all of their principles.
Most voters know NOTHING of any of the topics that are published, as an example, on VDC. The DNC-controlled mass media lies outright, manipulates the truth AND omits all that goes on in Montpelier.
By the time voters discover the truths, VT will be too far gone with rampant crime & taxes so unbearably high that even the wealthy will head for greener pastures.
Such are the results of voting party line and being ignorant.
“Sue the bastards!”
The alphabet soup acronym mafia is a calculated evil plot to accept the unacceptable; crimes against children. There are laws on the books regarding child abuse, exploitation of children, and contributing to the delinquency of minors. The problem is many people are gaslighted to the extreme to believe the “T” is a protected class of “special” people. There is a special place for these special people in Hell for causing harm to children. I declare and decree every person involved in this degenerate criminal conduct will be prosecuted and sentenced to the maximum. Zero tolerance for evil demonic dispicible conduct against children.
This is politics pure and simple. The children are the ones who suffer