A northern Kentucky mother was banned from refereeing youth basketball games because she's a lesbian.
Ayanna Mckinney and her wife signed three of their six children up for basketball and cheerleading through Upward Sports, a nationwide nonprofit affiliated with Florence Baptist Temple, and she volunteered through six weeks of the season without incident -- until two church officials came to her home and forbid her from calling games due to her sexual orientation, reported WCPO-TV.
"I was just in disbelief," she said. "I don't know how they were that comfortable to come to our house and just tell us that."
Upward Sports partners with more than 5,000 churches to promote Christianity through sports, but Mckinney's children saw flyers advertised at their public Stephens Elementary School, and her wife Jesika said church officials knew they were married.
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"My biggest thing that I'm going for right now is to make sure that these flyers don't go home in the school system anymore in children's bags," Jesika said. "I don't believe they should be advertising a program like this that is not going to get catered to our community and the diverse backgrounds that we all have."
Michael Gilbert, who coaches the couple's son, said church officials told him one of the cheerleading coaches for Mckinney's daughter raised concerns about their relationship, which prompted a meeting where church officials decided the women could no longer volunteer.
"It's 2023, it's time to move on,” Gilbert said. "Lesbians are allowed to get married in the state, but they're not allowed to participate in their kids’ activities. How does that make sense?"
The church agreed to refund the couple's signup fees as requested, but attached a sticky note on the check with a message from a church official asking them to stop talking about the situation.
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"We ask that you please stop telling people that we told you/your kids that you were not welcome," the note said. "It was not our decision to end things this way … we regret you felt it was."
Church officials kept “rambling about Bible verses” when he asked them to justify their decision, and Gilbert considered quitting in protest but decided to honor his commitment to the other players on the team, most of whom are not church members.
"I'll be darned if it happens to another family," Gilbert said. "They're just not Christian type people, for them to do what they did to a family like that."
