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Our high school volleyball career suddenly ended with a choice we should never have been forced to make: forfeit the final game of our season — and the chance to compete for a state title — or play against a male athlete.
On the one hand, the decision was easy. We are Christians who attend a Christian school and it should come as no surprise that we believe that Genesis 1 is true – that God created male and female, that you cannot change gender and to compete with a male who identifies as female would send a message that contradicts with what we believe. Many people believe that a person can they simply change their gender saying so, but the Bible tells us not to “be conformed to this world.”
On the other hand, it was devastating. We are both seniors, and losing that match meant that our entire volleyball career – all the hard work and sacrifices – we put in to reach the semi-finals, came to a standstill. We’ve never had the chance to celebrate playing the last game in the sport we love or compete for a state title, an award the Stone Ridge Christian School volleyball team has won twice in the past few years.
We volleyball players, along with the administration and staff of our school in Merced, California, made the difficult decision to withdraw from that November game against San Francisco Waldorf School.
Stone Ridge Christian School volleyball players (L to R) Rennah Friedman, Mackenzie Anderson, Mikyla Beene and Anneka Vander Wouda. (Union defends freedom)
No girl should be forced to choose between competing against a male athlete or they don’t compete at all. No girl should lose athletic opportunities to stand up for biological reality and truth. Every athlete has the right to compete in accordance with their religious beliefs.
The California Interscholastic Federation has publicly said that our school may be subject to sanctions because of our common sense attitude. Therefore, Stone Ridge has retained the Alliance to Defend Freedom, which is ready and able to defend the school if the government follows through on its threats of punishment.
Although we are the first Christian school in the nation to choose to stand up for our beliefs in this way, college volleyball players at public universities who also have a lot to lose are boldly standing up for truth, honesty and safety. Five teams have now lost seven games against nearby San Jose State University, which allows male athletes to compete on the women’s volleyball team.
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It is not realistic to think that girls and boys can compete fairly or safely against each other. The differences between men’s and women’s volleyball are so great that they are practically two different sports. For starters, the net is seven centimeters higher in men’s volleyball, and the style of play is completely different.
Girls volleyball is very strategic. We watch movies, come up with a plan and think about every move. There’s no better feeling than seeing all your training pay off when your team pulls off a hard-fought victory. We communicate; we are defensive.
But it’s quite different for guys — it’s more about power. They use their strength to hit the ball the other way; they just react. They jump effortlessly and half their bodies are above the net, driving the ball hard. Forget trying to block them.
Maybe we will never have the opportunity to put on pads and go out on the field again, which is very difficult for us. But this is so much bigger than a game or even a state title.
No girl should be forced to choose between competing against a male athlete or not competing at all. No girl should lose athletic opportunities to stand up for biological reality and truth.
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We take this position on behalf of all young girls who want to play sports one day. It is worth defending the truth that boys and girls are inherently different and that each deserves their own, separate sports teams and locker rooms.
As long as California sports policy allows boys to compete against girls—taking their roster spots and trophies and forcing them to unfairly lose critical games—other girls will face this problem. Christian schools like Stone Ridge have a fundamental right to protect the welfare of their students and hold fast to their religious beliefs.
Mikyla Beene plays volleyball for Stone Ridge Christian School in Merced, California.
