Appeals Court Reinstates School After Refusal to Play Against Transgender Athlete

Transgender athletes have become a major point of controversy not just in the United States, but across the world. Those who support these athletes argue that people should be able to participate in sporting events of their choosing, based on which gender they identify with. Opponents to transgender athletes argue that this is destroying the integrity of sports. Some also argue that biologically female athletes face serious safety hazards when competing against biological males who identify as female. A recent lawsuit involving a school in Vermont highlights how complex these situations can become. 

Vermont Christian School Forfeits Game Against Team With Transgender Athlete

In 2023, the girls’ basketball team of a Vermont Christian school was preparing for a game. However, officials at the school discovered that there was a transgender athlete on the opposing team. Specifically, the athlete was a biological male who identified as female. After discovering the existence of this athlete, the Christian school decided to forfeit the game. To justify the decision, school officials claimed that this trans athlete represented a safety concern. They also claimed that their inclusion undermined the fairness of girls’ sports. 

The Vermont Principals Association did not react well to this development. They concluded that by forfeiting the game, the Christian school had violated collective policies on diversity and equity. As a result, the Association expelled the school from all state-sponsored athletic events and games. They also went one step further, excluding the school from state science fairs and debate events. 

Appeals Court Finds That The School’s Expulsion Represented Religious Discrimination

The school then teamed up with a Christian legal organization and sued the state for First Amendment violations. The lawsuit revolved around an alleged case of religious discrimination, as the plaintiffs claimed they were forced to forfeit the game due to their religious beliefs about a transgender athlete. This belief is that God only created two genders: Man and woman. Some conservative Christians reject the existence of transgender people entirely, despite there being alternative readings of the Bible that account for gender diversity. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took the Christian school’s side, granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction that allows it to rejoin athletic events and other state-sponsored games. The appeals court also noted that the plaintiffs are “likely to succeed” because they faced religious discrimination after forfeiting the match. 

This decision came after a lower court initially sided with the Vermont Principals Association. In this initial ruling, the court found that the governing body applied its athletic policy without bias and without targeting any particular religion. The appeals court came to a completely different conclusion, essentially supporting the notion that the school was kicked out simply because the Association did not like its religious beliefs. 

The appeals court also pointed to the Association’s executive director, who had argued for the abolition of all public funding to religious schools. He made these arguments before a legislative committee in Vermont, a few days after the Christian school had forfeited the basketball game. In the eyes of the appeals court, this represented clear bias against the Christian school, their faith, and the entire concept of religious schools in general. 

The Goal of the Universal Life Church’s Blog

Each month, various lawsuits test the nature of religious rights in this country. While the basis for many religious rights is the United States Constitution, there are still countless cases that question the exact nature of these rights. The Universal Life Church’s blog is focused on documenting the most noteworthy of these cases in an objective manner that can be easily understood by readers.