NCAA and San Jose State ‘Transgender’ Volleyball Player Usurp Women’s Rights

by Jeff Johnston | December 2, 2024 | Culture

Boise State forfeited the semifinal game of the 2024 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament rather than play San Jose State, which had a “transgender” volleyball player on its team.

The school’s courageous stand for women-only sports and private spaces demonstrates the high cost of the NCAA’s “Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy,” which allows participation in sports based on an athlete’s “gender identity.”

The policy threatens women’s accomplishments and rights, but the Boise team is part of a growing backlash against transgender ideology that claims a man can become a woman through clothing and makeup, drugs, hormones and surgeries. Or just by proclaiming it so.

Boise teammates and sisters Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk explained the decision to Fox News’ sports outlet OutKick, with Katelyn saying:

And in the end, I guess we all had to come to terms with the idea that this is bigger than ourselves and a championship has to be given up for this fight [to protect women’s sports] to actually keep going.

Boise State forfeited twice to SJSU during the regular season. Southern Utah, the University of Wyoming and Utah State also withdrew from games with the Spartans due to the presence of Blaire Fleming, who was born male but attempts to live as a woman.

Nine players filed a lawsuit to block Fleming from playing in the tournament, but Denver Judge S. Kato Crews ruled against them.

SJSU went on to lose to Colorado State for the championship in four sets.

But the tournament highlights harms when males are allowed to play women’s  sports, including:

  • Girls and women lose scholarships and positions on teams. Fleming received a full scholarship that should have gone to a woman.
  • After working for years to achieve athletic success, 717 female athletes have lost more than 1,055 competitions and 518 medals to boys and men, reports the website SheWon.org. SJSU’s inclusion of a male brought losses to dozens of women throughout the season and in the championship tournament.
  • Male athletes endanger women athletes. A Title IX complaint from SJSU Associate Head Coach Melissa Batie-Smoose said, “Even defenders on Fleming’s own team, concerned for their safety, now sometimes turn away during practice matches when Fleming is winding up for a kill – a fear response … virtually unheard of in women’s volleyball.”
  • Teachers and coaches have been fired for not kowtowing to transgender policies and ideology. Batie-Smoose was suspended from her coaching position after filing her complaint in defense of the women she coached.
  • Athletes and teams have been banned from competition for opposing males in girls and women’s sports.
  • When males enter female-only restrooms, locker rooms, showers and lodging rooms, girls and women lose their privacy and are unwillingly exposed to male bodies. SJSU’s co-captain Brooke Slusser was forced to share rooms with Fleming – without being told her teammate was male. 

In addition to these harms, women who speak out against transgender policies are often targeted by transgender-identified activists and their allies. Slusser was threatened after she spoke out against Fleming’s presence on the team, leading to a police presence and metal detectors at a Spartan game against Colorado.

Thankfully, there is a growing backlash against men in women’s sports and private spaces.  A 2023 Gallup poll showed that 69% of Americans believe transgender athletes “should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender’ – an increase from 62% in 2021.

Along with refusing to compete against males, women are also fighting back with lawsuits. Swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, along with more than a dozen other female athletes, sued the NCAA in May 2024 over its policy that permits men to compete against them and use female locker rooms.

Earlier this month, the Van Kirks and ten other women sued the Mountain West Conference for violating their Title IX and First Amendment rights.

The forfeiture was painful for the Boise State women. But Kiersten explained its importance, as the team fights for women athletes across the nation. She told OutKick:

It’s just disheartening and heartbreaking that it had to come to this. But I know that we are all working towards future generations being able to have a safe place for female athletes to compete and putting that above ourselves, which is a really hard thing to do because obviously our goal was to win a championship. And I think that it’s extremely unfair and really terrible that it had to come to that.

The Daily Citizen applauds these women for their courageous, costly stance. We too want future generations of girls and women to have access to female-only sports, privacy and safety.  

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Transgender Resources

Canadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Four Women’s Volleyball Teams Forfeit – Won’t Play Team with a Man

San Jose Coach Suspended for Filing Discrimination Complaint Against Transgender Player

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy AllianceCanadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Image from Getty.

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