Among the slate for college volleyball this past weekend was a match in the Mountain West Conference between Boise State, seeking a first conference win, and a San Jose State team off to a torrid 9-0 start.
The scheduled match never took place Saturday night in San Jose. Boise State chose to forfeit the match. In a statement Friday the school said, “Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San José State on Saturday, Sept. 28.”
BSU officials wouldn’t say why, but the underlying reason spewed out over the weekend centering around SJSU redshirt senior outside/right side hitter Blaire Fleming and allegations that she is a transgender woman. Reduxx, a media outlet that is openly transphobic, did a story on her last spring citing an anonymous parent of a high school opponent and a lot of heavy-duty doxxing.
In the last week, Fleming was also a target of SJSU team captain and roommate Brooke Slusser. Slusser alleged Fleming did not disclose being trans to her or any other team member until the Reduxx article came out.
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That disclosure and further information, misgendering included, were placed into an amended filing of the lawsuit against the NCAA initiated by the Independent Women’s Council on Sports and fronted by former collegiate athlete and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines.
Fleming has played in NCAA Division I for three seasons, the last two as a San Jose State Spartan after transferring from Coastal Carolina. She has never made any public statement regarding her gender identity at any point.
If she is transgender, NCAA regulations have been clear on the matter, even with the changes that came in 2022. All the relevant filings and medical data would have been sorted before she could compete.
I shouldn’t be the one telling you this. NCAA officials in Indianapolis should be telling you this and Mountain West Conference officials should be telling you this. That is a major piece of this issue that isn’t discussed and needs to be.
Once again, governing bodies have decided to sit silently while professional transphobes and political opportunists run wild with a narrative of nonsense. This time however, it is against someone who has not made any public statement and may have chosen not to in any case.
This could end up being Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics all over again. Still, we just don’t know.
In the middle are student-athletes. In the case of Boise State’s volleyball team, there are a number of fair questions given that this team swept San Jose State last year with Fleming on the roster.
If the Broncos netters had qualms, the official statement didn’t say that.
Could it be because of others, like Idaho Governor Brad Miller, are doing it for them? Miller, who signed the nation’s first trans student-athlete ban legislation in 2020, took the moment to take another shot at trans people who have had already had to dodge the invective of many politicians like him.
“I applaud Boise for working within the spirit of my Executive Order, the Defending Women’s Sports Act,” Miller stated to KTVB Friday. “We need to ensure player safety for all of our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women’s sports.”
Of course, the usual corners of the right-wing transphobia machine are buzzing. Many of them are applauding the decision by the Boise State team to not play. Again, it is not known how BSU came to this decision, or if any of the student-athletes for Broncos volleyball where involved in it.
One student-athlete we do know about is Brooke Slosser. She is still on the SJSU roster as of this moment, even after signing on to Gaines’ lawsuit. What will the Spartans volleyball locker room be like going forward? This isn’t some backfielder or benchwarmer, but a team captain attacking a teammate.
It’s reminiscent of Penn swimmers who made teammate Lia Thomas’ life hell two years ago, and still hound her. Or the people of feel it’s okay to boo and harass high school kids because they won and happen to be trans.
Some of these people have shown they’ll target Fleming in the same way. And again, we in the public still do not know if she is trans.
What’s frustrating is the silence of San Jose State, the Mountain West Conference and silence we’ve always seen from the NCAA.
It’s rare to see such organizations take a positive stand, but some have done it. When Meghan Cortez-Fields, a trans woman who swam for Ramapo (N.J.) College, drew the fire of ICONS and their sycophants for setting a school record, the college stood up for their student-athete. When a high school in Vermont took an action similar to Boise State because a trans girl plays for the other team, the Vermont Principals Association stood up to transphobia and ejected that school from all of its competitions.
NCAA President Charlie Baker, please take notes.
The only people who needed to know about Blaire Fleming being trans — if she even is — are the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference, and the SJSU athletic department. She doesn’t deserve the invective thrown at her just for wanting to help her team with some solid play.
She is currently second on the team in total points scored so far. Her performance on the court should be the story, not the nonsense.
She also should be protected by her university and those who make the regulations from hearsay and hysteria from groups like ICONS. The NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and the member schools have an opportunity to stand up and be counted. I hope they take it, but I’m not holding my breath.
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