LOS ANGELES — A private Christian high school in Merced withdrew its girls volleyball team from a state playoff game against a team with a transgender athlete in a decision a school official said was based on “God’s Word” and the belief that gender is not changeable.
Stone Ridge Christian High School forfeited Saturday night’s California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) NorCal Division VI volleyball match against San Francisco Waldorf, a Bay Area private school. Neither school immediately responded to a request for comment.
Last week, Stone Ridge Christian academic dean Julie Fagundes sent a message to families saying this was a “heartbreaking end” to the team’s season but the school’s priority was to “care for the health and safety of our athletes” and uphold its religious principles.
“At SRC we believe that God’s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female,” she wrote. “We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message.”
CIF spokesperson Rebecca Brutlag said Stone Ridge Christian was informed that any team that withdraws from CIF playoffs is subject to sanctions at the section and state level. So far, no decision has been made about potential sanctions, she said in a statement.
Brutlag also pointed out that the California Educational Code and CIF’s bylaws both state that all students should have the opportunity to participate in athletic activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, regardless of the gender on their student records.
The school’s decision to forfeit the game feeds into a fierce national, and international, debate on transgender athletes’ place in sporting competitions.
“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,” said Amanda Goad, the Audrey Irmas director of the LGBTQ, Gender & Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, in a statement on the school’s decision.
“Excluding them from sports sends a terrible message that they are not worthy of being treated the same as cisgender teammates and classmates,” she said.
Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and activist who opposes trans women’s participation in female sports, shared a photo of the Stone Ridge Christian girls volleyball team on X and urged her 1.3 million followers to “show them some love for standing firm!”
People opposed to trans athletes’ inclusion say it’s unfair, and potentially unsafe, for people born with male traits to compete against athletes designated female at birth. President-elect Trump, for example, has repeatedly made promises to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
Tony Hoang, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality California, condemned Stone Ridge Christian’s refusal to allow its volleyball team to play against a transgender athlete.
“It’s disappointing that this school would deny their students the opportunity to grow and learn together and instead embrace the divisive and hateful rhetoric of extremists like Donald Trump,” Hoang said in a statement.
More than 20 states have laws that ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. California is not among them, but the issue remains controversial among Golden State residents.
San Jose State University, for example, is currently being sued for allowing a transgender athlete to play on the women’s volleyball team.
The complaint was filed by SJSU’s volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser and 10 athletes from other schools, who allege that their Title IX rights are being violated by allowing the transgender athlete to play for a women’s sports team. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational settings.
Four schools have withdrawn from games against SJSU’s volleyball team in protest, and Trump has also directly criticized the school for allowing a transgender player on the team.
In spring of last year, two trans athletes withdrew from state high school track-and-field finals after facing a torrent of online and in-person vitriol for their participation in women’s track events.
At the time, the CIF issued a statement saying the federation was “disappointed for two of our student-athletes and their families because due to the actions of others, they found it necessary to withdraw from the State Track and Field Championships out of concern for the students’ well being.”
