SJSU volleyball player warns 'there won't be women's sports' if transgender policies continue
San Jose State University volleyball player Brooke Slusser tells 'The Faulkner Focus' guest host John Roberts about the player exodus from the team after conflict over a transgender athlete.
University of Wyoming women's volleyball player Macey Boggs testified at a state senate hearing about her team forfeiting two matches to San Jose State in 2024 during a controversy involving transgender player Blaire Fleming.
Boggs, one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players engaged in a lawsuit against SJSU and the conference, spoke in support of a bill that would require participation in athletic competition be limited to an athlete’s biological sex at birth in the state.
But for Boggs, no amount of legislation will give her another opportunity to compete in the volleyball postseason. Wyoming's two forfeits to SJSU Oct. 5 and Nov. 14 cost the team a chance to make the Mountain West Tournament, and her career is now over.
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"My team was punished with two losses for refusing to play against a male athlete on an opposing team, an injustice that ultimately kept us from competing in the Mountain West Tournament." Boggs said. "I was stripped of a chance to play my final collegiate matches because we faced a situation no woman should ever have to face, either compete against a team rostering a male athlete on a woman's scholarship or forfeit the rest of our season. No woman should have to face such a decision.
"We deserve to compete against athletes whose biology matches our own, not against a male standard."
Sacrificing a chance to compete for a championship to ensure the safety of her and her teammates left a lasting impression on Boggs she won't soon forget.
"My team was told we didn't deserve safety on the court, that we weren't important enough for fair competition and that women should remain silent for the benefit of men," she said. "This issue is about more than just wins and losses. It's about whether we respect women and girls."
Wyoming Republican state Sen. Wendy Schuler, a former college athlete, is the sponsor of the bill and chair of the Senate Education Committee. Boggs urged the state legislators to pass the bill to protect future women's athletes from similar situations. The bill passed in a 4-1 vote.
There are already 25 states with laws in place to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women's and girls sports. A bill to prevent it on the national level has already passed in the House of Representatives.
Boggs hopes her experience can bring lawmakers to ensure it doesn't happen anywhere else.
"While it may be too late for me to finish my career on the terms that my team earned, it's not too late for the young girls coming up behind us," she said. "It is fundamentally unfair, unsafe and a violation of women's rights to force women to compete with or against biological males."
Boggs expressed her belief that sex is determined by birth and "not by feelings."
The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser, Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Sia Li'ili'i, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging the university gave favorable treatment to the trans player, is also a plaintiff.
Former NCAA swimmer and prominent conservative influencer Riley Gaines, who regularly organizes with other women's athletes affected by transgender inclusion and who is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA over the issue, revealed her account of what the players went through, based on discussions with them, during a hearing in Idaho Jan. 9.
"They were emotionally blackmailed into believing they were the problem," Gaines said of the players, adding Boise State was the only university that showed administrative support to players who wished to forfeit.
"The overwhelming majority of them did not want this brought upon them. No one asked for this. This is not a situation they wanted to be in," Gaines added. "These girls were terrified. They were terrified to stand tall. They were terrified to stand up for themselves. They were terrified of the things that would potentially come if they merely said ‘men and women are different.’"
Marshi Smith, the co-founder of a legal advocacy group, the Independent Council on Women's Sports, testified that the female athletes who joined the lawsuit felt threatened by retaliation from their university if they spoke out against transgender inclusion.
"What will they do to us for speaking up?" the players often asked, according to Smith.
Smith elaborated on these players' questions in a follow-up statement to Fox News Digital.
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San Jose State Spartans players before a match against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
"They’re often terrified of losing scholarships or being kicked off their teams. At San Jose State, administrators exploited these fears by telling them to stay quiet because it’s Blaire Fleming’s story to tell, not their own," Smith said.
Louisiana Tech head volleyball coach Amber McCray confirmed to Fox News Digital that her team did not know about the situation involving Fleming's natural birth sex, and it did not find out until the day after the match via rumors from parents.
LA Tech athletic director Ryan Ivey suggested in emails obtained by Fox News Digital that if officials had known Fleming's natural birth sex, the team "would have sought "a different outcome."
Slusser, who alleges she had to share bedrooms and changing spaces with Fleming in the lawsuit, has told Fox News Digital the experience has been "traumatic."
"This season has been so traumatizing that I don't even have a proudest moment," Slusser said.
SJSU has also acknowledged a recent exodus of volleyball players who entered the transfer portal. Nearly every remaining player who is still eligible is looking to leave the program.
"Student-athletes have the ability to make decisions about their college athletic careers, and we have the utmost respect for that," a statement said.
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