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A Vermont high school was expelled from the athletic association they were in, and cannot participate in any future sports, over said school's decision to forfeit a girl's basketball game against a team with a boy on the roster.
Coverage of the original incident:
Mid Vermont Christian School girls basketball refused to play Long Trail because of transgender player, forfeits playoff game
The latest:
Mid Vermont Christian School ousted from sports over transgender discrimination; Mid-Vermont Christian deemed ineligible by VPA; Mid Vermont Christian School ousted from Vermont Principals Association-sanctioned activities
A local letter to the editor called for a similar outcome last week.
The school is a Christian school, which I'm sure played a large role in all of this. For my part, I'm left wondering what Title IX was supposed to be for, in light of the Bostock decision and Gorsuch's but-for. If you are a boy, and claim to be a girl, and someone treats you as if you were a boy, then but-for your sex, you would expect to be treated as a girl, and therefore anyone treating you as a boy is discriminating on the basis of sex. Yet Title IX explicitly requires discrimination on the basis of sex, since it requires in practice equal numbers of athletic spots available for each sex.
The particular method of exclusion, through the state athletic association, seems like it would make a good target for a lawsuit under Title IX. The prescreens of a boy on the girl's team denies that spot to a girl (on the basis of sex), yet under Bostock that can't be the case.
How can you square this circle? How can you both require separate (discriminatory) athletic spots based on sex, while simultaneously requiring self-ID onto sex segregated teams?
There's another supreme court case currently being held regarding a high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games. I mention it because it gets at the religious aspect, rather than the sex aspect.
I found two particular parts interesting, aside from the question above. First, the boys defended the honor of their classmates:
And second, it's these boys who will also suffer for the girl's basketball coach's decision to forfeit, and for their Head of School's decision to comment. Their entire school, and all of their sports teams, are now without opponents against which to compete.
Title IX is just one avenue to pursue. This looks like a very likely 1st Amendment violation under a myriad of precedents.
What sort of precedents?
Christianity doesn't exactly address the question of playing sports between the sexes. That makes it a poor fit for freedom-of-religion. It's not establishing one religion over another, either. I'd assume it fails to harm any particular religion, and that there are secular sports teams making similar protests.
Playing coed sports isn’t a religious issue. But by playing with a boy saying he is a girl does bring up religious issues. Then by playing with him/her they are defacto recognizing transgender. Which is mocking god who created man and women as distinct.
Playing a coed game is no problem.
In that case (assuming the existence of God) he also created men who wanted to be women and vice versa, and prople who would support them. Essentially God is mocking Himself, so i am not sure thats a productive line of reasoning.
I mean your allowed to just say your atheist etc. but Christian’s have a literal creation story. Which I am sure your well aware of. God didn’t create half men half women.
I am an atheist but that doesn't stop me being able to comment on the logic here. If men and women were created in God's image and God is omniscient and omnipotent then trans men and women are creations of God. They would not exist unless He wanted them to. He could have chosen there to be no trans people or gay people or non-believers etc. The seeds of being trans were contained within the image of God. Now we don't know why that is the case (God works in mysterious ways and so on, maybe created as a test, or to prove a point or some other ineffable reason) but it is the logical outcome of the Christian creation story.
Sin exists. Because some exists doesn’t mean it was made in the image of god. The whole origional sin thing.
I mean you were an obvious atheist. I don’t think you are replying in good faith or lack an understanding of religion.
Think this is simple. Trans people go to hell unless they repent. It’s not something in gods image but a perversion.
I was a Christian however, so I have had the lessons, the Sunday School, etc., Religious education classes. And I promise you, I am engaging in good faith, I am just pointing out the even from the point of view of a Christian your argument has issues.
But again, I agree from the point of view of Christianity it makes sense to say that someone transitioning is committing a sin. Agreed. But that wasn't your claim.
But that isn't the same thing as making a mockery of God. Consider that one of the responses when a loved one is murdered or dies of cancer is that God moves in mysterious ways. Indicating that even this is part of His plan. That doesn't mean the murderer wasn't sinning within the Christian context, he certainly was. It is simply the acknowledgment that all things are part of God's plan and that our role is to surrender our faith to that plan. Even things we mortals do not comprehend like untimely deaths or your son coming out as gay or your daughter as trans are part of His plan.
That doesn't mean that your son or daughter are not sinful, but it does mean that God planned that. We don't know why, the reasons are literally ineffable, despite how many words have been written trying to understand it.
Calvin:
"Calvin did not believe God to be guilty of sin, but rather he considered God inflicting sin upon his creations to be an unfathomable mystery.[54] Though he maintained God's predestination applies to damnation as well as salvation, he taught that the damnation of the damned is caused by their sin, but that the salvation of the saved is solely caused by God"
Eastern Orthodox:
"(God's) foreknowledge is unfathomable. It is enough for us with our whole heart to believe that it never opposes God's grace and truth, and that it does not infringe man's freedom. Usually this resolves as follows: God foresees how a man will freely act and makes dispositions accordingly."
Catholicism:
"God] promised not from the power of our will but from His own predestination. For He promised what He Himself would do, not what men would do. Because, although men do those good things which pertain to God’s worship, He Himself makes them to do what He has commanded; it is not they that cause Him to do what He has promised. Otherwise the fulfilment of God’s promises would not be in the power of God, but in that of men"[61]"
Arminianism:
"This means that God does not predetermine, but instead infallibly knows who will believe and perseveringly be saved. Although God knows from the beginning of the world who will go where, the choice is still with the individual."
Middle Knowledge might be the most highbrow - a kind of multiverse:
"God knew what every existing creature capable of libertarian freedom (e.g. every individual human) would freely choose to do in all possible circumstances. It then holds that based on this information, God elected from a number of these possible worlds, the world most consistent with his ultimate will, which is the actual world that we live in."
The idea that being trans (or a murderer) is both sinful AND in line with God's plan and therefore not a mockery is entirely supported by large swathes of writings about resolving the paradox of free will and God's omniscience and (therefore pre-destination of outcome). It's the only real way to tie together the opposing issues. That God both planned for Bob to be the kind of person who would want to become Anne AND that Bob commits a sin by doing so. If you aren't a Christian that is an incoherent mess, what's the difference between perfectly foreseeing the outcome of your and other peoples actions given omnipotence and setting the "rules" and planning the same? If you are a Christian, it makes sense (or at least can make sense, I know a lot of Christians who do struggle with it, which is why there have been a lot of writings about it).
But almost all extant versions of Christianity as far as I can tell (Mormons excepted if you count them as Christian) have the same basic outcome. God did plan/foresee/deliberately put/know/ you will be in this situation with these urges AND set the rules AND if you act upon them you are committing a sin. He planned it AND it is your sin to make or not. You might have failed God when you chose to sin, but saying you are making a mockery of Him, doesn't make sense. Unless every time every Christian slips into sin, they are all making a mockery of God, which therefore makes the criticism far too broad to be useful here.
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