The Mid Vermont Christian School girls basketball team, the Eagles, were set to play against the Long Trail Mountain Lions in the fourth game of state championship tournament playoffs last week. But the Eagles forfeited the game and lost their place in the tournament, taking the position it was unfair and unsafe for a high school girls team to have to play against a team with a biological male on its squad.
Which, of course, it was and is.
[That’s another trans member of a women’s basketball team above, but illustrative of the problem…don’t you think?]
Vermont has been woke-wacky for quite a while now (signature significance: it keeps sending crypto-communist Bernie Sanders back to the U.S. Senate) and the state has a law that prohibits “discrimination” against student athletes because of their gender identity even when preventing them from competing isn’t discrimination at all, but what is technically known as “common sense” and “fairness.” The Vermont Agency of Education’s best practices policies direct:
“Transgender and gender nonconforming students are to be provided the same opportunities to participate in physical education as are all other students. Generally, students should be permitted to participate in physical education and sports in accordance with the student’s gender identity. Participation in competitive athletic activities and sports will be resolved on a case-by-case basis,”
Right. Resolved how on a case-by-case basis, and according to what standards and priorities?
“We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players. Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general,” Mid Vermont Christian School’s head, Vicki Fogg informed the news media.
More athletes and teams are going to have to follow the example of MVCS if the Great Stupid’s current fad of pretending that there is no material advantage for a newly minted “girl” to have gone through puberty as a male to be competing against the old-fashioned kinds of females in sports where size and strength are an advantage.
On a side note: Every story I’ve seen so far on this emphasizes that the school is a “Christian school,” as in this headline: “Christian high school girls’ basketball team forfeits playoff because transgender student on opposing team ‘jeopardizes the fairness of the game and safety of players.” By placing the “Christian label up front, the clear implication is that the decision to withdraw from the tournament was motivated by a faith-based objection to transgender individuals. There is nothing in the story that suggests that.
It’s just one more reminder of the myriad ways journalists distort stories and spin fact to mislead the public.
Update: This the team the MVCS girls wouldn’t play (Pointer: Heres Johnny):
__________________
Pointer: Other Bill
Ethics Alarms 
Excellent protest strategy, and when enough teams and individuals boycott the insanity of boys/men competing where they should not, those in charge will be forced to rethink their misguided rules.
The picture says it all, just like with Lia (theselfishasshole) Thomas.
I love the school’s statement for its brevity and incisiveness: it’s unfair and unsafe. Bingo. I’m so glad they put in the “unfair” and didn’t just weasel around with “unsafe.” Much as is the case with “racist,” “unsafe” has been stripped of any meaning by the left.
It’s so weird this hasn’t been resolved. It’s been careening around ever since Renee Richards came onto the scene in the 1970s. Sheesh.
In the olden days, guys like the dude in the team pic were called ringers.
It would be great theatre and would also push the envelope to bursting if every team invited one of the school’s star male athletes to compete whenever facing a woke team with a poser, I mean ringer, I mean
gender confused youth, I mean courageous trans star.
That might work; gender fluid, right? Who’s to say that star players on the school’s male team can’t identify as female every once in a while…maybe spurred to feeling “included and accepted” by the presence of their biological equal on the other team?
Forcing the decision makers, fools all, to explain how gender fluidity doesn’t qualify is a victory unto itself.