Full Court Press: Mid Vermont Christian School Asks for Religious Freedom Protections

LGBT, Religious Freedom, , ,

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.

READ MORE

Big Banks Walking Back Public Support for DEI

LGBT,

The Wall Street Journal reports big banks such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are walking back their public support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

Many companies established DEI policies and programs some years ago to create an equal playing field for racial and ethnic minorities. However, it did not take long for LGBT groups and others to hijack those policies to promote gender-identity politics and other radical ideologies in the workplace.

As a result, public opinion has shifted against DEI and pro-LGBT activism in the workplace, prompting many companies to change course.

Late last year Walmart rolled back its pro-LGBT diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Target, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Harley Davidson, and other corporations have moved away from DEI as well. Now big banks appear to be prepared to follow suit.

As we have said many times, it’s deeply troubling when multibillion financial institutions use their wealth and influence to promote radical ideologies. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion clearly is unpopular among consumers who are tired of pro-LGBT pandering from Corporate America. It’s good to see banks recognize that fact and reverse course on DEI.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE

In “Refreshing Return to Sanity,” President Trump Orders Government to Protect Kids From Sex-Change Procedures

LGBT, ,

On Tuesday, the Trump Administration issued an executive order protecting children from puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change procedures.

In 2021 Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act protecting children from these procedures. Since then, some two dozen states have followed suit. However, laws like Arkansas’ faced stiff opposition from the Biden Administration — which spent four years pushing one pro-LGBT policy after another.

President Trump’s executive order helps reverse the previous administration’s flawed policies.

The order prohibits federal funding from being used for sex-change procedures on kids — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries.

Medical institutions, and facilities who receive federal research or education grants must “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children” immediately.

The order also directs federal agencies to revoke pro-LGBT policies that were based on guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) — an organization that the order says “lacks scientific integrity.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Sharp called the executive order “a refreshing return to sanity,” saying:

“Not a single dollar should be spent to facilitate or push vulnerable kids towards experimental, often irreversible, drugs and surgeries. Instead of being a global outlier, America will now ‘follow the science,’ like the U.K. and other European countries have done, to ensure that we are identifying safe and effective ways to help kids who experience distress over their biological sex.

“The president’s order affirms that the federal government is standing with detransitioners and families hurt by gender transition drugs and surgeries. That includes supporting a legal remedy for those who have suffered at the hands of doctors who have pushed junk science on vulnerable kids. And it directs the Department of Justice to work to ensure that states like California and Minnesota can’t strip parents in other states of their parental rights for safeguarding their children from life-altering hormones and irreversible surgeries. We applaud President Trump for fulfilling his promise to America’s families and taking these critical steps to protect children from harmful, experimental, and often irreversible medical procedures.”

We have written before how files leaked from WPATH make it clear that medical professionals have been fully aware for some time that sex-change procedures can lead to lasting regret and complications — some of which may even be life-threatening. WPATH kept promoting these procedures anyway — and government officials continued to look to groups like WPATH for guidance.

Since 2021, a major hospital in Sweden has announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids, the U.K. has adopted policies that protect children from puberty blockers, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a warning label to puberty blockers after discovering they caused some biological girls to experience swelling in the brain.

It is past time for our state and federal laws to protect children from these dangerous hormones and surgical procedures. President Trump’s executive order helps do exactly that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE