Bloch started the snowboarding team more than 10 years ago at Woodstock Union High School (WUHS) in Vermont, and over the years it met with great success.

It was during a competition with a team that had a "transgender" (a male claiming to be a female) participant that the conversation took place. One student took the traditional and rational position that males shouldn't compete with females, while the other student claimed such a statement was "transphobic." Bloch entered the conversation, expressing his views that there are two sexes determined by their DNA and that consequently males have a physical advantage over females.

The conversation — private, between the three people — lasted three minutes. The next day, Bloch was fired.

Not only was he fired for violating the school's "harassment" policy, but the district ruled that he could never again hold any other coaching position in any sport in that district.

In June, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) entered that conversation by filing a lawsuit against the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board and the Vermont Principals' Association. And because the school claimed it was just following the state of Vermont's law regarding "harassment," ADF included the state's education director as a defendant as well.