Lawsuit challenges San Jose State, athletic conference over decisions about transgender athlete
Female athletes just filed a lawsuit against officials at San Jose State University and the Mountain West Conference regarding the participation of a male who identifies as transgender on the university women’s volleyball team.
Filed Wednesday, the lawsuit accuses university officials and the athletic conference of violating female athletes’ equality and free speech rights, Outkick reports.
It challenges a “Transgender Participation Policy” and games marked as forfeitures after a number of female athletes refused to play, citing concerns about San Jose State women’s volleyball player Blaire Fleming, a biological male.
Plaintiffs in the case include San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser and associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended after filing a complaint in relation to the transgender athlete’s participation.
“Women must speak up now,” Slusser stated in a news release. “This lawsuit sends a clear message: universities will face consequences for placing female athletes in harmful and unlawful situations. We won’t ignore the differences between males and females, and we won’t be silenced.”
The Independent Council On Women’s Sports is funding the lawsuit.
“The NCAA, Mountain West Conference, and college athletic directors around the country are failing women,” lead attorney Bill Bock said in a statement to Outkick.
“Because the administrators don’t have the courage to do their jobs, we have to ask the federal courts to do their jobs for them,” Bock said.
The lawsuit alleges the conference created a “Transgender Participation Policy” in September to “chill and suppress the free speech rights of women athletes.”
Under the policy, a refusal to compete against another team because of an “eligible transgender student-athlete(s)” will be considered a forfeit and a win for the opposing team. This affects teams’ records and ability to participate in championships.
Additionally, the policy states that schools are not obligated to disclose if an athlete is transgender, even if another team asks.
Outkick reports more:
The suit, which is seeking emergency injunctive relief ahead of the Mountain West Conference volleyball tournament set to begin in Las Vegas on Nov. 27. …
The volleyball players in the suit claim the matches forfeited due to the presence of Fleming should not count as losses because the women were simply exercising their First Amendment rights and the newly-enacted TPP should not have passed in the first place.
The lawsuit thus seeks an injunction and asks for the conference to either disqualify San Jose State from competing in the conference tournament, disqualify Blaire Fleming from competing in the conference tournament, and/or remove the losses from the records of teams who protested by not competing against SJSU – and, subsequently, remove the wins from SJSU.
Currently, the San Jose Spartans are 11-5 in the conference and 13-5 overall.
Five teams have forfeited seven games to the Spartans due to Fleming, including the University of Wyoming, Utah State, and University of Nevada at Reno.
MORE: Coach suspended after filing complaint about transgender athlete on women’s volleyball team
IMAGE: San Jose State University/Instagram
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