Amid the contentious issue of transgender athletes infiltrating girls’ and women’s sports, a Christian high school in California has recently made headlines for forfeiting a match against an opponent with a transgender athlete on their team. Adhering to biblical teachings on gender, Stone Ridge Christian High School in Merced, California, announced they would not be competing against San Francisco Waldorf.
“As many of you know, our girls won on Wednesday and advanced to the state playoffs.” the statement from Stone Ridge Christian said in its announcement. “Unfortunately, we were just informed that our opponent, San Francisco Waldorf, has a male athlete playing for their team,” the statement continued.
Furthermore, the statement affirmed the word of God, maintaining that the biblical teachings on gender in the book of Genesis clearly delineate males and females and that one’s sex is not interchangeable. Additionally, the school explained that it must protect the health and safety of its female student-athletes.
The school said, “At SRC, we believe God’s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutable created each person as male or female. We do not believe sex is changeable, and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message. We also have a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes.”
Ultimately, the Christian high school elected to forfeit the game after careful consideration, maintaining that it is standing for biblical principles. “So, after consulting with our students, coaches, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday’s game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game,” the statement noted. The school concluded, “This is heartbreaking end to our season, but I hope you will join me in congratulating these outstanding student-athletes. SRC is proud of them,” the school’s statement concluded.
Across the nation, female sports at various levels have faced a contentious battle over the participation of transgender athletes. At the collegiate volleyball level, San Jose State has faced intense scrutiny over allegations of a transgender player on its roster. Several opponents have forfeited matches against the university, refusing to play under these conditions.
However, Associate Head Coach of the San Jose State Spartans women’s volleyball team Melissa Batie-Smoose was recently suspended after she joined a lawsuit against the NCAA and filed a Title IX complaint against the school. Smoose argued that one of her team’s players is transgender and should not be permitted to play.
“Safety is being taken away from women, fair play is being taken away from women, we need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women’s sports as we know it right now will be forever changed,” Smoose argued. However, San Jose State said in a statement, “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter.”
Featured image credit: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons,https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baldwin_Wallace_Yellow_Jackets_Volleyball_(48782338137).jpg