The transgender women in volleyball disputes are being waged on yet another front close to home, as a Merced Christian high school just forfeited their game against San Francisco Waldorf School because they believe Waldorf has a transgender player.
You may have been following the ongoing controversy over a transgender women’s volleyball player at San Jose State, which has resulted in a lawsuit against the school and the Mountain West Conference from San Jose State’s own captain, and threatens to disrupt next week’s Mountain West Conference tournament. Now a similar controversy is hitting right here in San Francisco, and with high school teams at that.
A report from Fresno’s KSEE says that Stone Ridge Christian High School in Merced just forfeited their Saturday state semifinal match against SF’s Waldorf High School because they believe Waldorf has a trans player on their women’s volleyball team. The San Francisco Waldorf School, which has both an elementary and a high school, has declined to comment, and it’s not confirmed whether the player in question is, in fact, trans.
Per The Independent, Stone Ridge Christian’s academic dean Julie Fagundes said in an email to parents that the school “believes that God’s Word is authoritative and infallible.”
“As Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female,” that statement continued. “We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message.”
But the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports in both public and private schools statewide, says in their bylaws that all students should be able to participate in whatever sports team that is consistent with the student’s gender identity. The California Educational Code says the same.
Though across the US, the Movement Advancement Project documents that 25 states ban transgender athletes from playing on the teams of their gender identity.
“A lot of people are saying that trans women shouldn’t participate in sports because they might be taller, or they might be stronger,” chair of the Fresno-based nonprofit Trans-E-motion Arien Reed told KSEE. “And even when that is true, there’s also plenty of women who are born female who also have those same traits, who are also tall, who are also strong.”
Either way, the California women’s high school volleyball championship tournament continues at 6pm Wednesday night, with each division’s championship games this coming Friday or Saturday.
Related: SJSU Women's Volleyball Captain Joins Anti-Trans Lawsuit Against Own Teammate [SFist]
Image: Ming C. via Yelp
