A girls basketball team at a Vermont high school decided to forfeit a playoff game rather than take the court against a squad whose roster included a biological male. Their coach expressed concern about the safety of his players and the fairness of playing against a team sporting a boy.
In response, Vermont suspended Mid-Vermont Christian School and its students from all athletic events. The school has now sued state officials.
The lawyer representing the school in its fight against Vermont is joining us next week and will be the featured speaker at our Wednesday, April 3rd meeting (advance registration required; click here to register).
Our special guest speaker is Attorney Ryan Tucker, the senior legal counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries with Alliance Defending Freedom. He oversees all litigation efforts to maintain and defend the constitutionally protected freedom of churches, Christian ministries and religious schools to exercise their rights under the First Amendment.
New Hampshire Senator Dan Innis will also join us to talk about the “Protection of Women’s Sports Act”, of which he is a sponsor.
Where Attorney Tucker is located outside of New England, to bring him to you, our April meeting will be via Zoom. We’ll send you the Zoom link for the meeting once you register. Expect us to open the Zoom meeting room at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will kick off after that and we’ll plan to hear from Attorney Tucker at 6 p.m. sharp.
Think New Hampshire is immune to boys competing in girls sports? Think again.
Just last month, a boy was crowned the New Hampshire girls high school high-jump champion. He won with a 5-foot-1 jump, which bested all of the girls high-jumpers. The worst score in the boys’ competition? 5-foot-8. Here’s the N.H. Journal article about it. After the boy was crowned champion of the girls high-jumpers, Dem state Rep. Timothy Horrigan dismissed the outrage, since the high jump is an “obscure competition”.
Presently under consideration by the legislature is Senate Bill 524, also referred to as the “Protection of Women’s Sports Act”. Here is the text of proposed Senate Bill 524: This bill requires any interscholastic, intercollegiate, or club athletic team, sport, or athletic event that is sponsored or sanctioned by a school, school district, an activities association or organization under the control of the state board of education, or an institution of higher education under either the university system or the community college system to be designated based on the biological sex at birth of the participating athletes, and restricts those participating in sports designated as “female” to biological females.
Senator Innis is among the sponsors and he will join us to talk about the bill. Other sponsors include Rockingham County legislators Sen. Bill Gannon, Sen. Daryl Abbas and Rep. Jess Edwards. You can view the discussion on the bill before the Senate Education Committee by clicking this link. The discussion starts about 20 minutes in. A companion effort is ongoing in the House.
Perhaps the best known victim of the infiltration of women’s sports is college swimming champion Riley Gaines. She was suddenly knocked out of first place at nationals by a 6-plus-foot male who said he’s a woman. Riley is perhaps the biggest advocate for protecting girls sports. On March 7th, she was a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience. You can learn more about her, her efforts on behalf of girls and women and find her March 7th interview on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ here.
You can read more about the Mid-Vermont Christian School case by searching Google. But here’s a handful of news sources:
3. FoxNews interview from 02/26/2024 with coach Chris Goodwin and Attorney Tucker
When Attorney Tucker started at ADF in 2017, he defended the conscience rights of Christian business owners against policies that would force them to compromise their beliefs in the face of threatened heavy fines and punishment. Before that, he spent 16 years at a litigation firm in San Antonio.
You can find out more about the Alliance Defending Freedom and different cases the agency is involved in by perusing their website and viewing their media page.