The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has just delivered a swift kick to religious liberty while waving the rainbow flag of so-called inclusion. In what world is it acceptable for a small Christian school to be dragged through the legal mud for daring to uphold a basic biological reality?

Let’s recap the audacity of the crime here: Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS), a tiny Christian institution with fewer than 100 students, did the unthinkable—they forfeited a girls’ basketball game rather than compete against a team featuring a male player identifying as female.

A school had the nerve to insist that girls’ sports should be played by, well, girls. Clearly, the VPA and the courts couldn’t let that stand. So, naturally, MVCS was promptly banned from every single state-sponsored athletic competition. Punished not just for a game, but for a principle.

You see, in the moral dystopia of modern America, daring to assert that biological men should not compete against biological women is treated as a high crime against humanity. Apparently, the sports field is now sacred ground where biology bends to ideology. What a peculiar twist of progress—to level the playing field by ensuring it’s no longer level.

And who’s the real victim here? The girls who just wanted a fair shot at a basketball game. But forget them. They’re merely collateral damage in the broader war on truth. The state of Vermont, wielding the Vermont Principals’ Association like a weapon, has declared war on anyone with the audacity to believe in chromosomes. It’s not enough to play by the rules; you must affirm the ideology. Bow down or be banned.

It’s no wonder MVCS took a stand. Any school that values integrity over social pandering would have done the same. But apparently, integrity is now a disqualifier for playing sports. Instead of teaching our kids courage, the message is clear: conformity or exile.

The VPA, in all its bureaucratic wisdom, decided to make an example out of MVCS—because nothing says inclusivity like excluding anyone who doesn’t cheer for the new sexual revolution.

The school wasn’t just penalized for forfeiting one game, though. It was slapped with a permanent ban from all sports—because why stop at punishing one team when you can eradicate the entire program? Talk about a measured response. It’s like dropping a nuclear bomb to settle a parking dispute.

But let’s not forget the best part… the court’s dazzling acrobatics to justify this ideological crusade. The judges didn’t just side with the state—they applauded the decision to punish MVCS. Why? Because, as the court explained, the VPA’s policy is a “neutral and generally applicable” rule. Neutral? As neutral as a referee being paid by one of the teams. It’s a curious kind of neutrality that consistently sides against anyone who takes the Bible seriously.

The entire point of separating men’s and women’s sports is to protect fairness and physical well-being. But apparently, that’s just old-fashioned, outdated thinking. Never mind that putting male-bodied athletes on the court with girls introduces obvious physical disparities. Never mind the fact that the science doesn’t support the fantasy. The only safety that seems to matter is ideological safety—protecting the fragile egos of activists who can’t handle dissent.

What’s next? Will the courts mandate that religious schools hold drag queen story hours in the gymnasium as a precondition to entering the playoffs? Don’t laugh—this is the same logic. Once you start subordinating religious liberty to the whims of public ideology, there’s no end to what the state will demand. Today it’s basketball. Tomorrow it’s mandatory virtue signaling.

The court actually compared MVCS’s principled stand to a public accommodation refusing to serve a protected class. Yes, because refusing to play against a team that defies biological reality is the moral equivalent of denying someone a seat at a lunch counter. The intellectual gymnastics required to draw that parallel should qualify for their own Olympic event.

What the judges fail to grasp—willfully, I might add—is that this case isn’t about discrimination against people. It’s about refusing to participate in a lie. MVCS didn’t say, “You can’t play basketball.” They said, “We won’t be forced to pretend a boy is a girl just to keep our spot in the tournament.” But in modern jurisprudence, affirming reality itself is deemed discriminatory.

This is about forcing compliance, not fostering equality. The state is using its power to crush dissent, to make an example of anyone who dares to contradict the orthodoxy of the day. It’s not about protecting anyone’s rights—it’s about coercing submission. This isn’t just a ruling against a school; it’s a ruling against truth itself.

The courts have become the enforcers of a new moral order, where allegiance to progressive dogma is the price of admission to public life. You can believe whatever you want—so long as you never express it or let it affect your actions. And heaven forbid you hold the line on biblical convictions, because the cultural tide is rising to drown out any whisper of resistance.

So here’s the message from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals: religious liberty is only valid if it doesn’t offend the zeitgeist. The VPA and the courts have made it clear that if your faith conflicts with state doctrine, prepare to be sacrificed on the altar of inclusivity. In the meantime, MVCS and other Christian institutions must choose: stand firm or bend the knee.

But make no mistake—those who bend today will be asked to kneel tomorrow. MVCS stood, and now it’s being crucified for daring to proclaim that truth is not subject to judicial approval. It’s a lesson every Christian school, every church, and every believer should take to heart: the world will tolerate anything except the truth. And for that, MVCS deserves not condemnation, but applause.