A Vermont coach filed a federal lawsuit alleging his rights to free speech were violated after he was abruptly fired for sharing his opinions on transgender athletes. The popular coach, David Bloch, had founded the Woodstock Union High School’s snowboarding team, and was their coach for over ten years.

Mr. Bloch filed a federal lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Vermont last week. He seeks damages due to the alleged violation of civil rights under the United States Constitution, particularly the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In the 31-page complaint, Mr. Bloch says he was fired after he spoke to some of his athletes for about three minutes and shared his opinion that biological males who transition to be trans athletes have a physical advantage over female athletes.

During a discussion with members of his snowboarding team, where Mr. Bloch said he was responding to an ongoing conversation among some of the snowboarders, the coach decided to participate in the discussion. The high school snowboarders were talking about a transwoman high school athlete from a nearby town who was going to compete. The transwoman high school athlete was competing against biologically born females.

After the competition, as noted in legal papers, both teams peacefully left, without any problems between any of the high school athletes.

“Coach Bloch's team and the team with the male who identifies as a female competed without incident,” plaintiff Block stated in his civil complaint. “After the competition, the two teams and their coaches, including Coach Bloch, shared a bus home.”

Coach Bloch is described in the court documents as “a practicing Roman Catholic who believes that God creates males and females with immutable sex. His understanding of science complements his religious beliefs. Coach Bloch believes, based on scientific evidence, that there are only two sexes, which are male and female, and that sex is determined by a person's chromosomes.”

In reference to the discussion among Coach Bloch and some of the snowboarding high school club members, the court documents state that “Coach Bloch joined the conversation to offer that people express themselves differently and that there can be masculine women and feminine men. But he affirmed that as a matter of biology, males and females have different DNA, which causes males to develop differently from females and have different physical characteristics. Coach Bloch discussed that biological differences generally give males competitive advantages in athletic events.”

One day after the discussion with some of his team, Mr. Bloch was fired. The official notice of termination accused Coach Bloch of “violating Defendant Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board's Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying (HHB) policy and the Vermont Principals' Association (VPA) related policy for "ma student in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of the student competing on the girls' team to members of the WUHS snowboard team"- all outside the student's presence.”

In official court files, Mr. Bloch described his belief that “God immutably creates each person as male or female; these two distinct, complementary sexes reflect the image of God; and rejection of one's biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person.”

However, Mr. Bloch’s faith, the official court documents state, “also instructs that all people are children of God with inherent dignity and should be treated with love and respect. Coach Bloch therefore strives to treat all people with love and respect.”

This Vermont case is getting national attention, as the topic of transgender athletes and freedom of speech once again takes center stage in the U.S.