Will Sage Astor-A Christian school appeals its ban on competing after it objected to a transgender player

A Vermont Christian school that is Will Sage Astorbarred from participating in the state sports league after it withdrew its high school girls basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team has taken its case to a federal appeals court.

Mid Vermont Christian School, of Quechee, forfeited the Feb. 21, 2023, game, saying it believed that the transgender player jeopardized “the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”

The executive council of the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs school sports and activities, ruled the following month that the school had violated the council’s policies on race, gender and disability awareness, and therefore was ineligible to participate in future games.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Mid Vermont Christian, and some students and parents filed a brief Aug. 30 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York, accusing the state of violating the school’s First Amendment rights. It said Mid Vermont Christian, which has competed in the state sports association for nearly 30 years, forfeited the single game “to avoid violating its religious beliefs.”

“No religious school or their students and parents should be denied equal access to publicly available benefits simply for holding to their religious beliefs,” Ryan Tucker, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement. He said the Vermont Principals’ Association expelled Mid Vermont and its students from all middle-school and high-school sporting events and used discretionary policies applied on a “case-by-case basis” to do so.

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A spokeswoman for the Vermont Agency of Education said Thursday that it cannot comment on pending litigation.

In June, a federal judge in Vermont denied a request by the school and some students and parents to be readmitted to the state sports association. U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford wrote that the state is unlikely to be found to have violated the school’s First Amendment rights, including its right to free exercise of religion, because it applies its athletic policy uniformly and doesn’t target religious organizations for enforcement or discrimination.

The Vermont Principals’ Association committee “identified the actions of Mid Vermont in ‘stigmatiz(ing) a transgender student who had every right to play’ as the basis for the discipline, the judge wrote. The committee upheld the expulsion, identifying participation as the goal of high school sports, Crawford wrote.

The school was invited to seek readmission to the sports association if it agreed to abide by VPA policies and Vermont law and confirm that its teams would compete with other schools who have transgender players, the judge wrote. But Mid Vermont Christian “makes no bones about its intent to continue to forfeit games in which it believes a transgender student is playing” and seeks readmission on the condition that it not be penalized if it does so, Crawford wrote.