Outchurched

From 9News (NBC affiliate):

The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary’s Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy’s beliefs.

While this starts off as standard Christianist stupidity, two men did the right thing in response to religious fucktardery:

Campbell then walked off the court along with Darin Putthoff, the referee who was to work the game with her.

“I said, ‘If Michelle has to leave, then I’m leaving with her,”‘ Putthoff said Wednesday. “I was disappointed that it happened to Michelle. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Fred Shockey, who was getting ready to leave the gym after officiating two junior high games, said he was told there had been an emergency and was asked to stay and officiate two more games.

“When I found out what the emergency was, I said there was no way I was going to work those games,” said Shockey, who spent 12 years in the Army and became a ref about three years ago. “I have been led by some of the finest women this nation has to offer, and there was no way I was going to go along with that.”

What do other folks involved have to say?

“We don’t support any institutions that would discriminate against any of our officials,” said Steve Bradley, president of the Topeka group. “We support Michelle 100 percent.

…

Musselman said this was his first time dealing with a situation in which a school turned away a referee because of gender.

“We view officials not as male or female, Hispanic or African-American or Asian-American. We view officials as officials,” Musselman said. “Discrimination against our officials is something we can’t be party to.”

It seems that there are some good people in Kansas, willing to stand up and fight the good fight against religion-fueled discrimination.

I’d like to see more of this. I dig hearing about people standing up for each other’s rights, and the upheaval of absurd religious nonsense.

(h/t Cynical-C)

This entry was posted by Rev. Dan on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under Christlikeness?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.