Full Court Press: Mid Vermont Christian School Asks for Religious Freedom Protections
A private school in Vermont is asking a federal court to stop the state’s athletic association from penalizing the school after the school’s girls’ basketball team forfeited a game against a team with a male athlete who identifies as a female.
The following is from our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom regarding the case:
Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) was punished by Vermont officials after it chose not to violate its beliefs.
Read more: https://adflegal.org/article/vermont-…
Coach Chris Goodwin and the MVCS girls’ basketball team decided to forfeit a game rather than force its girls to play against a team with a male. MVCS believes that God uniquely created everyone either male or female with distinct characteristics and that sex cannot be changed, so participation would propagate a lie. Facilitating a girls’ basketball game in which a male plays would have forced MVCS to violate its beliefs.
But the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), Vermont’s state sports association, punished MVCS by barring it from participating in all VPA sports and activities, not just girls’ basketball. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of MVCS challenging Vermont’s religious discrimination.
After a federal district court’s unfavorable ruling, ADF appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. We presented oral argument before the 2nd Circuit on April 9, 2025.
Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders case details: https://adflegal.org/case/mid-vermont…
Stories like this one are part of the reason Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) in 2021 to prevent male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.
We have written time and again about how women’s athletics is at risk of being erased in America.
Female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, volleyball players, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who claim to be women.
Letting men compete in women’s sports is unfair. It reverses 50 years of advancements for women, and in some cases it can even be dangerous.
Earlier this year President Trump signed an executive order that helps protects women and girls from being forced to compete against men. It also protects women’s right to privacy in locker rooms, showers, changing areas, and similar facilities, and it directs federal officials to withdraw funding from educational programs that “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”
We appreciate our policymakers who work hard to protect fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas and across the country, and we appreciate our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom who are standing up for women and girls in federal court.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
