Boise State University forfeited its women’s volleyball game against San Jose State University on Saturday, citing a transgender teammate from SJSU, and the Title IX lawsuit now surrounding her, as the reason.
Blaire Fleming has played on the women’s volleyball team at SJSU for three years. Prior to her time as a spartan, Fleming played at Coastal Carolina as well. According to reporting by WFIN, several teammates had no idea Fleming was transgender.
However, one SJSU player, Brooke Slusser, joined other female athletes from across the NCAA in a Title IX lawsuit, alleging that Fleming’s spikes traveled so fast women had to dodge them and that Fleming presented a safety issue on the court.
Per the NCAA, transgender athletes are allowed to compete on a sport-by-sport basis. They must submit documentation including testosterone levels to the NCAA committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sport in order to be eligible.
According to ABC7, SJSU said, “student athletes are in full compliance with NCAA rules and regulations and cannot comment further due to privacy protections.”
When Boise State University made the decision to forfeit their game against SJSU and Fleming, they garnered the attention of Idaho’s governor, Brad Little. Little recently passed an executive order to, “safeguard the fairness in women’s sports.”
In a post on X, Little said, “I applaud @BoiseState for working within the spirit of my Executive Order, the Defending Women’s Sports Act. We need to ensure player safety for all of our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women’s sports.”
At this time, Fleming herself has not made a public comment on the lawsuit or the forfeited games, however, the LGBTQ+ community and sports fans have taken to the internet to support her. Many posters on social media saying, among other things, that including transgender athletes in women’s volleyball, “isn’t destroying the league.”
SJSU is scheduled to play a match against Wyoming this week. As of the writing of this article, the match is still set to be played.
