Mick Hartley

At least there's some fight back:

A girls basketball team has withdrawn from the Vermont Division IV state tournament after refusing to compete against a team with trans-identified male player.

The Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles (MVCS) forfeited their playoff game against the Long Trail School Mountain Lions (LTS) after learning that LTS star player Rose Johnson is male.

In an email sent to the Vermont Valley News, MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg wrote: “We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players. Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”

Long Trail School is a private prep school located in Dorset, Vermont. Johnson, who stands 6’1, is the tallest member of their basketball team and a standout when it comes to blocking shots, according to Mountain Lions coach Courtney Stasny. In an interview conducted earlier this month, Stasny boasted about Johnson’s athletic prowess.

“Rose brings such a great energy to the floor. We nicknamed her Rose ‘not in my house’ Johnson because she just does not let anything come through the lane,” Stasny said.

Basketball is a sport where physical characteristics – height in particular – are of supreme importance. Obviously a 6’1 player in a team of girls is a huge advantage. It's kind of obscene how the coach can boast about "Johnson’s athletic prowess", knowing full well that his participation is ruining the game for all the girl players. But…the system allows it. What can you do?

What you can do is what the other team did here: refuse to play.

Professional coach and fitness expert Aaron Warner objected to Johnson’s participation in girls’ basketball in the Vermont Daily Chronicle: “In one game [Johnson] had seven blocked shots. That means seven shots, typically closer to the basket so much more likely to go in, were blocked by the guy who is taller than every other girl on the floor, can jump higher and likely is significantly stronger. In what world is this even remotely fair to other Vermont Division IV girls?”

Warner cautioned that there is a greater chance of injury to female players when they compete against males: “Bone mass, lean mass, cardiac output, strength capacity, work capacity and kinesiological potential all heavily advantage males. This is why men’s competition records (i.e. sprinting, jumping, weight lifting) dwarf women’s…Add to this fact that men are larger, faster and stronger than women and the potential for males injuring girls increases dramatically in competition.”

In October, a North Carolina school district voted to forfeit all girls volleyball games against a rival school that featured a trans-identifying male player over safety concerns after he injured a girl on an opposing team with a forcefully-spiked ball to the face. Video that went viral showed the girl collapsing to the ground after being hit with the ball. She reportedly suffered head and neck injuries and long-term concussion symptoms.

Vermont state law includes “gender identity” along with “sex” as a protected characteristic which can not be discriminated against by places of public accommodation in regard to their “accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges.”