It’s ‘a Form of Cheating’: Christian High School Leaves Athletic Conference over Pro-Transgender Policy

A Christian high school in Maryland exited its athletic conference in December after the league began allowing transgender students to compete according to their gender identity and not solely their biological sex.

Grace Brethren Christian School, an independent school in Prince George’s County, already had plans on leaving the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) this spring due to the long travel involved in driving to games.

But when the conference changed the policy on transgender students, Grace Brethren chose to bump its exit up to December, The Washington Post reported.  

“[Schools] that allow boys to play on girls’ teams is a form of cheating [and] it gives them an advantage over girls teams who only play female athletes,” George Hornickel, the school’s director, wrote in an email.

The conference, Hornickel wrote, “began to allow male athletes, identifying as females” to play last year without the required two-thirds vote, according to The Post. 

The Potomac Valley Athletic Conference, though, is standing by the policy. The conference is comprised of independent schools. 

“Our league is committed to honoring everyone’s identity, and that is very important to us,” conference president Taisto Saloma, who also is the athletic director at Washington Waldorf School, told The Post….