After hearing that the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team has a transgender player in its lineup, the University of Wyoming women’s volleyball team discussed the matter and decided to play its Oct. 5 match against the undefeated California school anyway.
Blaire Fleming is an outside and right-side hitter for San Jose State University who’s made headlines in recent days after another San Jose player, Brooke Slusser, joined a lawsuit to sue the NCAA over Fleming’s inclusion on the Division I team.
Slusser and numerous other women, including women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, allege in the lawsuit that Fleming is a male, and that Fleming’s inclusion on the women’s volleyball team poses an unfair advantage and safety hazards.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” says Slusser’s addition to the lawsuit complaint, proposed this week in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia. “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”
Slusser was surprised to find that Fleming had requested to room with her on volleyball trips — and that Fleming was male. After months of training and sometimes staying in the same rooms, Fleming pulled Slusser aside and admitted to being transgender, says Slusser’s proposed addition.
Slusser and many other teammates think their team has an unfair advantage, the document says.
Fleming did not immediately respond to a Tuesday message request for comment.
A Sept. 22 score tally for the team says it is undefeated, but it characterizes Fleming as roughly the second-best player on the team. Fleming has 103 kills to a top player’s 124, and 118.5 points to a top player’s 146.
The NCAA countered an earlier version of the women’s lawsuit, saying the women can’t level a Title IX (sex discrimination) lawsuit against the NCAA because it’s a rulemaking group, not a state college; and that the women can’t penalize the various state organizations they’re also suing because those were just following the NCAA’s independently forged rules.
Utah Cancels
Southern Utah University cancelled its Sept. 14 women’s volleyball match against San Jose.
The school told sports news outlet Outkick that its team wanted to compete in just two conference games for the weekend, and didn’t respond when the outlet pushed for comment on Fleming’s inclusion on the women’s team.
SUU likewise did not respond to a Cowboy State Daily request for comment by publication time Tuesday.
No other teams have cancelled their volleyball matches against San Jose State, the California school told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday email. Citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the university declined to comment on Fleming’s sex.
Back At The Ranch
The University of Wyoming is planning to challenge San Jose at home in Laramie at noon Oct. 5.
“The Athletic Department administration/coaching staff recently discussed the matter with the entire women’s volleyball team … including any potential safety concerns,” Chad Baldwin, UW spokesman, told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday email. “No student-athletes expressed any concern regarding their safety.”
The team plans to play, Baldwin said, adding that UW does not want to comment on Fleming’s inclusion in general.
“Opinions regarding fairness vary from individual to individual among the involved parties — (like) coaches, student-athletes, etc.,” wrote Baldwin.
UW is a member of both the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference and adheres to those groups’ policies about transgender student-athlete participation, he said.
In 19 of 25 women’s sports the NCAA requires males who want to compete against women to show testosterone suppression to a level of fewer than 10 nanomoles per liter, a threshold five times higher than the upper end of the female testosterone range and 25 times higher than testosterone levels for females at the lower end of the female range, says the lawsuit complaint.
That level also overlaps with the normal male range of 8.8 nmol/L to 30.9 nmol/L, the document adds.
Defunding
A lawmaker who has been instrumental in curbing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) funding at the University of Wyoming voiced frustration Tuesday with the upcoming volleyball match.
“We know it’s not fair, we know it’s not what our citizens want,” said Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle. “The Legislature was very clear … that we wanted DEI stopped at the University of Wyoming. The citizens in the recent election cycle were very clear that they’re tired of the woke agenda.”
The Wyoming Legislature this winter passed a budget provision that tried to defund all DEI programming at UW, along with the school’s DEI office.
Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed the portion defunding DEI programming, but kept the part defunding the DEI office. UW can spend state money on some DEI programming, though it still weathered a $1.7 million budget cut as a result of the budget provision.
UW declined to respond to Steinmetz’s assertion.
San Jose State’s PRIDE Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
