Christian school backs out of state playoff game against team with trans athlete over ‘God’s word’

A private California Christian school forfeited a girl’s volleyball state playoff game because a transgender student athlete was on the opposing team.

Stone Ridge Christian High School in Merced forfeited the game against the private San Francisco Waldorf School on Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a message to parents, Stone Ridge Christian’s Academic Dean Julie Fagundes said the school “believes that God’s Word is authoritative and infallible.”

“And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female,” Fagundes said in a statement. “We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message.”

While conceding it was a “heartbreaking end” to the season, Fagundes said “standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game.”

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports for both public and private schools, states in their bylaws that all students should have the opportunity to participate in sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity, the Times reports. The same goes for the California Educational Code.

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Meanwhile, 25 states across the US have laws banning trans athletes from participating in teams that align with their identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

“Transgender athletes want to participate in school sports for the same reasons as anybody else: to find a sense of belonging and social engagement, to be a part of a team, to boost fitness, and to challenge themselves,” Amanda Goad, director of the LGBTQ, Gender & Reproductive Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement to the Times.

“Excluding them from sports sends a terrible message that they are not worthy of being treated the same as cisgender teammates and classmates,” Goad added.

Fagundes defended the school’s decision in a statement to The Independent, claiming that “girls should only be competing against girls.”

“We’re proud of our girls for taking a stand for the truth and what is right, and we wholeheartedly support them,” she said.

The Independent has contacted San Francisco Waldorf for comment.

LGBTQ+ rights, particularly those of trans athletes, have long been under attack by president-elect Donald Trump and his right-wing coalition, sparking fear among members of the community.

Along the campaign trail, Trump and his allies spewed anti-trans rhetoric, often railing against trans athletes in particular. The president-elect vowed to ban transgender athletes from competing in sports and has made a series of false claims about transgender healthcare in the US, including the lie that kids are being offered gender transition surgeries in schools.

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The Republican party even boosted its investment in ads attacking transgender people in the lead-up to Election Day. One of Trump’s most-aired attack ad against Kamala Harris, according to The New York Times, ended with the statement: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Many GOP representatives have also added waves of amendments to government funding bills that would bar federal spending on gender-affirming healthcare, such as gender transition procedures and hormone therapy, The Independent previously reported. Trans rights could be even more at-risk as Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress.

Following Trump’s election, LGBTQ+ crisis hotlines also reported being inundated with phone calls from young people distressed by his victory.

The Trevor Project, a nonprofit collective dedicated to supporting queer youths and preventing suicide, revealed it had experienced a nearly 200 percent increase in conversations with election-related keywords such as “election” and “rights.”

The US is suffering from an “epidemic” of violence against transgender people amid this rise in anti-trans rhetoric and laws, the Human Rights Campaign said in a November 2023 report.

From November 2022 to November 2023, 33 transgender and gender-expansive people were killed in the US, the Human Rights Campaign reported. Now, in just the first ten months of 2024, at least 30 transgender and gender-expansive people have been violently killed.

The Trevor Project helpline is available 24/7 in the US over the phone at 1-866-488-7386 or via text message at 678-678. If you are based in the US and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. In the UK, people having mental health crises can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org.