At least a dozen women’s and girls sports teams have forfeited games against teams with biological male players without consequences, but one team has been kicked out of its league for almost a year for refusing to play a team with a transgender-identifying player.
Mid Vermont Christian School in Burlington, Vermont, forfeited a girls’ high school basketball game in November 2023 against a team that had a male athlete playing for it. The Vermont Principals’ Association resultantly kicked Mid Vermont Christian out of the association and denied it public funding through the state’s tuition program.
But other teams across the country have faced no penalties for declining to play teams with biological male players.
The Collegiate Charter School of Lowell’s girls’ basketball team forfeited its Feb. 8 game against KIPP Massachusetts after a biological male injured three of the school’s players in less than 16 minutes of play.
In 2022, the Cherokee County Board of Education in North Carolina voted 5-1 to forfeit all future games against Highlands High School because of a transgender player on the volleyball team.
Several members of the Hillsboro-Deering High School girls soccer team in New Hampshire refused to play against the Kearsarge Regional High School team in October. The opposing team’s star athlete is a male named Maelle Jacques.