Anti-trans school sues state for religious discrimination after it forfeited basketball game

A Christian school in Vermont that was banned from competing in tournaments after its girls’ basketball team refused to play against a team that included a transgender student-athlete is now suing several state agencies for religious discrimination.

In February, the Mid Vermont Christian School’s girls’ basketball team forfeited a playoff game against Long Trail School, withdrawing from the Vermont Division IV state tournament. At the time, Valley News reported that the school sent a letter informing the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA), which oversees school sports and other activities in the state, that they would not be entering the tournament. In an email, MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg told the paper, “We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”

Related:

State bans Christian school from sports tournaments after it refused to play against trans athlete

The school is one of two that have sought state tuition money while attempting to sidestep the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

“Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general,” Fogg wrote.

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In March, the VPA, a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations, informed MVCS that it had violated the organization’s anti-discrimination policies and that the school would be banned from future tournaments.

The school also sought approval for state tuition money while attempting to sidestep Vermont’s anti-discrimination laws earlier this year. As the Advocate notes, Vermont’s Agency of Education denied MVCS’s request to continue receiving public taxpayer funds while being allowed to violate anti-discrimination laws.

Last week, the school filed a federal lawsuit against the state Agency of Education, the Vermont State Board of Education, the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union Superintendent, the Orange East Supervisory Union Superintendent, and the VPA. MVCS alleges that it has been subjected to “unconstitutional religious discrimination and hostility.”

“The State of Vermont has adopted its own orthodoxy on human sexuality and gender. Simply put, the State believes sex is mutable and biological differences do not matter,” the suit states. The school argues that the state “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’s tuitioning program and the State’s athletic association.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBTQ+ Christian legal advocacy group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group, is representing the school in the case.

In a statement, ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker, director of the ADF Center for Christian Ministries, described Vermont’s exclusion of MVCS from participating in the state’s tuition program and athletic association as “the latest example of state officials trampling on constitutionally protected rights.” Tucker also cited the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Carson v. Makin. In that case, the court ruled that Maine could not exclude religious schools from its private school voucher program.