Mid-Vermont Christian School (MVCS) in White River Junction, Vermont, received a high-school-sports death sentence this week when the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) banned the school from all future competitions after the school’s girls’ basketball team refused to play a game against a team with a biological male on it.
On February 20, the MVCS Eagles chose to forfeit their postseason tournament game rather than play against a team with a biological male (a boy “identifying” as a girl) participating.
On March 13, the VPA, the governing body for Vermont high-school athletics, announced the punishment for MVCS’s thought crime.
“VPA Executive Council met and determined that Mid-Vermont Christian’s forfeit (2/20/23) and corresponding rationale as shared in the Valley News of 2/25/23, violates VPA Policies which are aligned with Vermont state law,” VPA’s letter read.
“Specifically, the school’s actions do not meet the expectations of the VPA’s 1st and 2nd policy,
Commitment to Racial, Gender-Fair, and Disability Awareness and Policy of Gender Identity, respectively. Thus, Mid-Vermont Christian school is ineligible to participate in VPA activities going forward.”
In a press release, the VPA clarified their position: “The VPA is committed to providing all students with the opportunity to participate in VPA activities in a manner consistent with their gender identity as is outlined in the Vermont Agency of Education Best Practices For Schools For Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Students. Vermont’s Public Accommodations Act (9 V.S.A. 4502) and VPA policies prohibit discrimination and/or harassment of students on school property or at school functions by students or employees. The prohibition against discrimination includes discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender.”
The ban affects not only the girls’ basketball team, but all athletic teams and any other competitions for the entire school. The ban is indefinite and begins immediately. MVCS plans an appeal of the decision.
Head of MVCS Vicky Fogg stated that allowing her girls team to play against a biological male was unfair and could ultimately be dangerous.
“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” Fogg wrote in an email to Valley News.
“We urge the VPA to reconsider its policies, and balance the rights of every athlete in the state,” Fogg added. “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general,”
The VPA, which voted unanimously to ban MVCS from future competition, had no sympathy for Fogg’s objections.
“If you don’t want to follow VPA rules, that’s fine,” said VPA executive director Jay Nichols. “But then you’re just not a VPA member. It’s fairly simple.”
This controversy in Vermont is just the latest example of transgender activism in high-school athletics. Thus far, 19 states have found it necessary to pass laws mandating that students wishing to compete in athletics must compete in the gender/sex they were born with. There are no actual “bans” against transgender athletes.
Yet, all over the country, biological males are trying to play girls’ sports by claiming to be female. Examples are the Connecticut case of two biological males dominating female track and field competitions and, more recently, West Virginia’s fight to keep girls’ sports in the state for girls only.
Oddly, there appear to be few examples of biological females yearning to play in boys’ sports.
When using stereotypes about the two genders (and there are only two genders), it’s often said that men are more competitive than women — not always but generally. Transgender activists complain that “trans” women are really women and “trans” men are really men. If that is so, why is there such a discrepancy between young trans females looking to satisfy their urge for competition and young trans males doing so?
Could this competitive spirit in young “transgendered” females (i.e., boys “identifying” as girls) be another signal that they aren’t quite as feminine as they’re supposed to be? Could the opposite be true for “transgendered” males (i.e., girls “identifying” as boys)?
