Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe.”

“We were punished for expressing our view on a matter of profound public concern: whether a teenage male who ‘identifies’ as female should be permitted to change in a girls’ locker room, regardless of the discomfort experienced by the girls in that room.” This is the story of Blake and Travis Allen.

Blake, a 14-year-old student at Vermont’s Randolph High School, plays on the girls’ volleyball team. Travis is her dad. On Sept. 14, 2022, while the girls were in their locker room changing, the transgender student on the team entered the girls’ locker room while they were in various stages of dress (some were naked, some with tops off). Here is their story in an interview with Mary Olohan of The Daily Signal.

“It’s not the trans student’s fault. It’s the school board’s fault. We don’t understand why we must share a locker room with a biological male. A male came into our locker room as we were changing. I asked him to leave, and he didn’t. It made many girls uncomfortable and feeling violated. I left as soon as I could in a panic. When I tried to talk to school officials about how unsafe and violated we felt, they just said it was a law and there was nothing they could do, and I should go somewhere else if I feel uncomfortable.”

“The trans student came in, walked into a separate part of the locker room, and changed while we were changing in the main part of the locker room. When the trans student was done, he came out into the girl’s side and stood and watched us. A lot of the girls, all in various stages of changing, asked him to leave and told him they were uncomfortable with him there watching. It took a little while before he left.”

When Mary of the Daily Signal interviewed a member of the girls’ soccer team about this incident with the volleyball team, she was shocked to hear the answer to her question ‘has this happened here before?’:

“Yes, it’s happened a lot in the past in bathrooms. But these males said they were gay and not trans, and they were not attracted to girls, so the school allowed them in the girl’s bathrooms. These biological males were allowed in the girl’s bathrooms and locker rooms because the school didn’t care to listen to the girls’ concerns. When we did file a complaint, the males would file harassment claims against us.”

The Vermont School District issued a punishment against Blake and Travis on October 18, 2022, for “misgendering” the trans student by speaking out against biological males using girl’s locker rooms, which they claimed constituted “harassment on the basis of gender identity”. Their punishments?

Blake was suspended for several days. Travis, the middle school girls’ soccer coach, was suspended without pay for the rest of the season. That all changed when Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) got involved.

“Calling a male a male shouldn’t have cost Travis his job and gotten Blake kicked out of school,” said Phil Sechler, senior counsel at ADF. “Everyone has the right to speak freely, and we are grateful that this settlement further protects that right.” The Daily Signal reports that “The district has settled with the Allen family in what its legal team is hailing as a ‘resounding victory for First Amendment Free Speech.’”

The settlement with the School District requires them to do 4 things: 1) pay $125,000 to Travis, Blake and ADF, 2) reinstate Travis as middle school soccer coach, 3) scrub any records of discipline against Travis and Blake from school records, and 4) remove any content posted online, on bulletin boards at the school that display “love and support” messages to the trans-identifying student.

The overwhelming lesson from this incident is that bathrooms and locker rooms are gender-specific safe spaces, and everyone knows it. Radical LGBTQ harassment tactics can be stopped if you just speak out.

But we must understand what is under attack: the character of God Himself. In this week’s verse, God tells us He is the One to whom those who trust in Him must always run. He is the only true safe place.

And the incredible story of lesbian/trans activist Rosaria Butterfield proves this. It’s the power of God’s gospel that can change lives, including the LGBTQ+ community. She said the key to her surrender to Jesus Christ was a Christian who cared for her so much that he made it safe for her to ask her questions.

This is how Christians should face the sexual sinfulness of today’s culture. We must not back away and avoid conflict. We must speak up in the name of Christ, in love but in conviction for what is true and right.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #556