Though it originally planned to pit its women’s volleyball team against a California squad with a transgender player in its lineup, the University of Wyoming announced Tuesday it will forfeit instead.
The announcement comes after state Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, dispatched a letter to other Wyoming Republican legislators asking them to sign a letter urging UW President Ed Seidel and Athletic Director Tom Burman to forfeit a scheduled October match between the Wyoming school’s women’s volleyball team and San Jose State University.
San Jose State has made headlines recently after Blaire Fleming, junior player who could be roughly categorized as its second-best, was revealed to be transgender, first by women’s rights newspaper Reduxx, then by the player’s own teammate and roommate, who joined a lawsuit against the NCAA last month.
Southern Utah University withdrew from its Sept. 14 match with the undefeated San Jose team. Then Boise State University forfeited its Sept. 28 match, which equates to a 3-0 loss for the Idaho team.
After both forfeits, UW Athletics maintained that its volleyball team would play its Oct. 5 match against SJSU. On Tuesday, the university reversed that position.
“After a lengthy discussion, the University of Wyoming will not play its scheduled conference match against San Jose State University in the UniWyo Sports Complex on Saturday, Oct. 5,” reads a Tuesday email statement from UW spokesman Chad Baldwin. “Per Mountain West Conference policy, the conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Wyoming.”
The Cowgirls will host Fresno State University at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the UniWyo Sports Complex, the statement adds.
Baldwin declined further comment, including who was part of the “lengthy discussion” and whether anyone in support of the match had written to the university.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican and Wyoming's only delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, voiced support for UW's ultimate decision in a Tuesday statement.
"I am proud of UW volleyball standing up to this nonsense," wrote Hageman. "We must do what it takes to protect our girls! I hope everyone will go support the team this season."
Gov. Mark Gordon also voiced support of the decision, saying, "It is important we stand for integrity and fairness in female athletics."
Under Pressure
UW received plenty of pressure from people and groups urging it to forfeit.
The Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) sent a letter to every Mountain West conference president saying the advocacy group had been speaking with “distraught student-athletes and their parents, coaches, and administrators” throughout the conference about “a crisis in WMC women’s volleyball.”
The letter calls Fleming’s inclusion a violation of law and says ICONS is “watching closely the response of the MWC.”
On Tuesday, Steinmetz was circulating a petition-style letter of her own, trying to amass Republican lawmakers’ signatures in support of a forfeit.
The letter has overtones of negative financial consequences.
“The Legislature has been very clear that the University of Wyoming, being a publicly funded land grant institution, should not participate in the extremist agenda of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or propagate the lie that biological sex can be changed,” says Steinmetz’s letter. “We all know it cannot.”
Steinmetz pointed to the recent primary election in which Republican candidates touting a willingness to push social conservatism through state laws performed generally better than more socially Libertarian candidates.
“We assure you; the majority of our constituents do not want the integrity of Women’s Athletics to be decimated by the participation of males who overall have superior physical strength and abilities to women,” she wrote. “We further ask you to foster an environment where ladies are honored and protected, and men are respectful and gentlemanly.”
Steinmetz gave the legislators until 5 p.m. Tuesday to sign the letter. As of about 4 p.m., she estimated the count at 15 or 20 signatures but said she'd have an official count later.
Vote Your Conscience
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, penned but did not ultimately send his own letter to UW. The letter would have urged the university and everyone involved with it to stand on their own principles but to be mindful of potential consequences.
"I absolutely, unequivocally, denounce any biological male competing in any female sport, especially those where livelihoods, scholarships, and potential physical harm can be done to females," wrote Brown. "Our female athletes have earned their spot on their teams based on their ability to compete at a level comparable to their female counterparts throughout the country and in many cases, the world."
But it's for UW to lead the charge against that, not legislators, Brown added.
He said he wanted to write his own thoughts rather than be part of a “canned message” someone else wrote; and he urged student athletes to pick a side and stand firm in their convictions; he urged the university to empower athletes and students “and allow them to make this decision themselves.”
‘Discrimination’
Transgender-issues reporter Erin Reed called the series of schools canceling on SJSU “a story filled with discrimination,” in a Saturday post to X.com (formerly Twitter).
Fleming fled South Carolina after a ban on transgender athletes went into effect, and has been with SJSU for three seasons, wrote Reed.
“Her anti-trans roommate and teammate didn’t even know she was trans,” Reed added, referencing San Jose player Brooke Slusser, who voiced she’d long been uncomfortable with the apparent risks of Fleming’s might on the court, but despite rooming with Fleming on multiple occasions, Slusser didn’t realize the player was trans for months.
“(Slusser’s) legal filing and many news articles point to Fleming’s height if (sic) 6’1 as a biological advantage she has,” wrote Reed. “But 7 of 25 players on SJSU are above 6 feet, and 11 on Boise State are over 6 feet!”
Title IX
ICONS is supporting the ongoing lawsuit to which Slusser has now added her claims of Fleming’s inordinate athletic power and the image of unfairness Fleming’s participation lends the team.
ICONS’ letter to the conference presidents says allowing males into women’s safe spaces including locker rooms violates Title IX, a federal education law banning discrimination on the basis of sex.
The legal landscape surrounding Title IX’s application is in flux.
The U.S. Supreme Court in August blocked President Joe Biden’s administration’s new Title IX rules from going into effect, after the administration’s attempt to pass new language that may have banned schools from keeping transgender students out of bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t match their sex.
Every justice on the high court voiced a belief that the states suing the Biden Administration need a break from three of the rules’ provisions. Those would have: redefined sex discrimination, violated students’ and employees’ rights to bodily privacy and safety, and redefined hostile environment harassment, according to the majority opinion’s reference of the state’s argument.
However, that ruling juxtaposes the high court's 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the majority announced that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender status, for the purposes of workplace federal laws. Because the language in the federal workplace laws is similar to in the education title, numerous litigants have challenged a reading of Title IX that would forbid male players from inclusion in female sports and spaces.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
