San José State women’s volleyball trans row explained: What, exactly, is going on?
Five teams have forfeited games against San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team. (Getty/Wikimedia Commons)
San José State University (SJSU) is at the centre of a row about one of its women’s volleyball players. The inclusion of the allegedly trans athlete has left a number of other universities refusing to play “The Spartans” National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) matches.
Five teams so far have forfeited their games against SJSU, with the University of Nevada, Reno, being the latest name on the list. Nevada’s “Wolf Pack” were scheduled to host the SJSU team in October but announced that they wouldn’t take to the court.
In a statement, which was shared by anti-trans swimmer Riley Gaines, Nevada said they would forfeit the match and cited the other four women’s volleyball teams who have already withdrawn from games against SJSU.
“We, the University of Nevada, Reno, women’s volleyball team, forfeit against San José State University and stand united in solidarity with the volleyball teams of Southern Utah University, Boise State University [from Idaho], the University of Wyoming and Utah State University.
“We demand our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld. We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes.”
The forfeits mean SJSU are steadily rising up the league table without even raising a sweat.
Neither SJSU nor other teams have confirmed that the team has a trans player, and the person at the centre of the controversy has never publicly spoken about their gender identity.
Has a lawsuit been filed against SJSU?
Yes, but this is not the first time trans athletes have been at the forefront of a culture war about their inclusion in women’s sport.
A lawsuit was previously filed against the NCAA for its policy of including transgender people in college sports, although the rules vary by sport, and trans volleyball athletes must submit documentation to the organisation showing that they have “taken the necessary steps to transition to their adopted gender”.
Funded by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, a new lawsuit now cites a transgender player on the SJSU women’s volleyball team as another example of the issue.
The lawsuit quotes the 1972 federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, and is aiming to “remedy sex discrimination against women in college athletics”.
Gaines is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed in March. She became a prominent opponent of trans inclusion in women’s sport after competing against transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022.
SJSU women’s volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser recently joined the lawsuit, commenting on Nevada’s decision not to compete, by saying: “Another great step in the right direction for women’s sports.”
Slusser claimed that her teammate was more forceful when hitting the ball than others, and that she and a few unnamed teammates were afraid of suffering concussions. This is despite there having been no reports of any significant injuries to anyone on either side of the net during matches or practices.
The NCAA requires trans women to meet certain standards involving testosterone levels and other hormones linked to muscle growth and speed before being cleared to compete.
What has SJSU said about the issue?
Following a rally in support of Nevada’s team, which Republican state governor Joe Lombardo, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and the captain of the team attended, SJSU said that they condemned any targeted campaigns against its students.
“We abhor that our students would be used for political purposes, and we are concerned about the implications of doing so,” they said.
“We will continue to take measures to ensure the safety of our students while they pursue their earned opportunities to compete, and we remain committed to fostering an inclusive and caring environment for our student athlete.”
All the team members are eligible to play, according to the NCAA, they added.
Head coach Todd Kress has spoken out about the row and the toll it has taken on the team.
“They’re receiving messages of hate, which is completely ridiculous to me. Would you want your student-athlete, your daughter, to face the same kind of hate that you’re dishing out?” he asked the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Gloria Nevarez, the commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, the league SJSU plays in, said: “It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student athletes on both sides of this issue [who] are getting a lot of national negative attention. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
However, SJSU associate volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose has also filed a Title IX complaint, claiming that the university has shown favouritism towards the supposedly trans player “at the expense of [their] 18 female teammates”.
She also gave an interview to Quillette about the “toxic” environment created on the team by including the trans player.
Batie-Smoose has since been suspended, which was confirmed by the school to Outkick, although SJSU declined to “provide further information on this matter”, except to say that it had to do with breaching “student and employee privacy”.
The coach has now accused the school of trying to “silence” her for “speaking up for their First Amendment rights and for what’s right”.
She told Outkick: “I just want to protect women’s sports and protect the members of our team.” She went on to claim: “I’m concerned about Brooke Slusser and the majority of the team because they’re being silenced and their thoughts and feelings don’t matter [to San José State University.]”
How does SJSU sit in the wider context of debates about trans athletes?
The culture war surrounding trans athletes has expanded in recent months, and became a major issue in the presidential election.
Republicans used anti-trans rhetoric and even took out ads targeting trans people, to appeal to their voter base, with the governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming publicly expressing support for the teams refusing to play SJSU.
In addition, Republican candidate Donald Trump made trans people and athletes a key part of his campaign.
He has said he would ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity if he becomes president again, adding that he won’t “let it happen”.
Increasingly, athletic associations and school districts across the US have tried to restrict trans athletes from competing on teams aligning with their gender identity, saying that their participation encroached on female-only spaces – a right afforded to cisgender women by Title IX.
They also argued that trans women have a natural physical advantage over cisgender women.
Twenty-five states have laws barring trans women from competing in women’s sports, according to the Movement Advancement Project, although some of them have been blocked, at least temporarily, by legal challenges.
This is not limited to the US though. World Aquatics and World Athletics have banned trans women from competing in women’s events, and the discussion surrounding the gender identity of boxer Imane Khelif during the Olympics was a high-profile example of anti-trans sentiment running wild.
Tom Temprano, a spokesman for LGBTQ+ civil rights group Equality California, told The New York Times that the issue at SJSU wasn’t about sports but “trying to create a panic around the LGBTQ+ community”.
He went on to say: “At the end of the day, trans athletes want to work hard alongside their teammates, just like everyone else.”
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