‘No do-overs’ in high school sports: LCMS school leaders stand up for female athletes

(Stock image: Unsplash)

By Jeffrey Hemmer

“In light of [biological sex at the core of a person’s physical reality], common sense dictates that men and women should compete in athletics separately to ensure fairness and safety and to provide advancement opportunities for women. Women’s need for a dedicated space in athletics where they may excel as women is so obvious that it is enshrined in federal law.”

So reasoned a May 8 letter from the principals of three Orange County, Calif., Christian high schools. The letter was a response by Dr. Mary Scott, executive director of Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, Calif.; Dr. Jeffrey Beavers, executive director of Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, Calif.; — both schools of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Pacific Southwest District — and Richard Meyer, president of JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

The intent of the letter was “to express our disappointment in CIF’s [California Interscholastic Foundation] failure to respect and protect our female athletes and our strong opposition to CIF’s Gender Identity Policy. Said plainly, CIF is failing female student athletes, undoing decades of hard-fought battles to ensure equity in athletics and no sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”). CIF’s Gender Identity Policy also creates an environment hostile to member religious institutions.”

At issue is the refusal of CIF, the governing body of high school athletics in the state, to follow a February 2025 executive order from the Trump administration banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports.

In addition to basing their argument on natural law and common sense, the three administrators confessed, “Our faith views the objective reality of an individual’s given maleness or femaleness as a divine gift, essential to the individual’s identity. Each person is made in God’s image and likeness as either male or female, beloved sons or daughters of almighty God. From this status, each person is vested with an inherent dignity worthy of respect. Our sincerely held religious belief is that a person’s sex is immutable from conception and is not a characteristic of one’s own choosing. Our objections to CIF’s Gender Identity Policy, therefore, are not rooted in malice against any students experiencing gender dysphoria. Instead, we protest this Policy that denies objective truth. This Policy is wholly lacking in sincere or authentic charity for those who suffer from gender dysphoria, resulting in harm to these students and injustice to those students of the opposite sex with no alternative but to compete against them.”

According to a Fox News story, the May 10 state prelim track and field meet involved a rally of student athletes and parents opposing the participation of one transgender athlete in the girls’ division. They handed out “Protect Girls’ Sports” shirts and appealed for fairness in sport and equal opportunities for girls to compete on a level playing field — against other biological girls.

“No matter how hard we train, how many hours we put in, reality will always set in that men and women are different,” said one female student athlete from Crean Lutheran. “To me, this just doesn’t seem fair. CIF is doing nothing to protect us female athletes.”

“There are no do-overs in high school. [For graduating seniors], this could be their last opportunity,” said Beavers. “A biological male competing against girls could keep one girl from advancing to the finals.”

The CIF has stated its intent to comply with California law and not with federal executive orders. On Feb. 12, the U.S. Department of Education “announced directed investigations into the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), both of which publicly announced plans to violate federal antidiscrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.”

A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found 65% of California adults and 71% of public school parents “support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex they were assigned at birth.”

The issue is not new in California. Since 2013, when then-Governor Jerry Brown signed the School Success and Opportunity Act into law, students perceiving themselves to have a gender identity contrary to their biological sex have been permitted to participate on sports teams that match their perceived gender identity. In a recent conversation with conservative political pundit Charlie Kirk, on the first episode of his new podcast “This is Gavin Newsom,” Galifornia Governor Newsom acknowledged the unfairness of allowing biological boys to compete in girls’ sports but failed to offer a solution that afforded that fairness.

The courage of three high school administrators to band together to stand up for the distinctive goodness of humanity created male or female, for common sense, and for the protection of girls in girls’ sports is an example parochial schools and administrators in other states may soon have to emulate.

Their letter concludes, “As religious schools, our primary duty is to honor God and to serve him by forming our students in truth and wisdom while protecting them from harm.” The issue is not who can jump highest or farthest, run fastest, or throw weight the farthest; the issue is confessing the goodness of God’s creation and encouraging students to find hope and purpose in their God-given identities.

California state track and field finals are May 17. “Support from the community has been tremendous,” said Beavers. “We cherish everyone’s prayers through this. We know God’s grace will shine, and even this situation will be an opportunity to extend His love to others.”

The Rev. Jeffrey Hemmer (jeff.hemmer@lcms.org) is pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Fairview Heights, Ill.

Posted May 16, 2025