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Donald Trump got wind of the ongoing issue surrounding gender identity and women’s volleyball in the Mountain West Conference and declared Wednesday during a town hall on Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus” that if elected he would ban all transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
Four universities have forfeited matches against the Spartans following controversy over the gender identity of one of the team’s players.
Answering a question about transgender athletes, Trump referenced a play last week showing a San Jose State women’s volleyball player spiking a ball that hit a San Diego State player in the arms, briefly knocking her down. The player successfully kept the ball in play with the dig and immediately stood up and smiled.
A video of the play circulated on social media accompanied by claims that the San Diego State player was hit on the head while noting that the San Jose State player is transgender.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men. But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it.
“You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”
San Diego State issued a statement disputing Trump’s characterization of the play, saying, “It has been incorrectly reported that a San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play. We have called for corrections from multiple media outlets.”
San Diego State won the match in straight sets. It was one of three conference matches played by San Jose State since the identity of the transgender player became public, and the Spartans have lost all three.
Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming forfeited matches this season against San Jose State, with none of the schools explicitly saying why.
The issue will again come to a head Oct. 26 when San Jose State is scheduled to play at Nevada, whose players voted to forfeit the match while the school insisted it be played. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin and Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown attended Nevada’s match against Utah State on Tuesday in Reno to support the players.
The politicians had been at a campaign event for Trump in nearby Carson City, possibly giving the issue the national attention that Trump seized upon a day later.
“For us, it always came down to … equal opportunity, fair play on the court,” Nevada team captain Sia Liilii told the Reno Gazette Journal. “Women have fought so hard to get to the point where we are, playing D1 volleyball and having matches like this. For someone who is a biological male to come in is not fair.”
The Nevada administration released a statement explaining why the match against San Jose State should be played:
“The University and its athletic programs are governed by the Nevada Constitution and Nevada law, which strictly protect equality of rights under the law, and that equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin. The University is also governed by federal law as well as the rules and regulations of the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference, which include providing competition in an inclusive and supportive environment.”
Despite the university making its stance clear, Liilii said the team will not play San Jose State. She is one of several players who have retained lawyer Joey Gilbert, who has a history of taking up right-wing causes including representing a Nevada school district in its efforts to bar transgender students from local athletic competitions.
“I know what our team is going to do, and we are going to have integrity,” Liilii told the Gazette Journal.
The NCAA adopted new rules a year ago pertaining to transgender athletes, who must document sport-specific testosterone levels at the beginning of their season and again six months later. They also must document testosterone levels four weeks before championship selections.
“We are steadfast in our support of transgender student-athletes and the fostering of fairness across college sports,” said John DeGioia, chair of the NCAA board of governors and Georgetown president. “It is important that NCAA member schools, conferences and college athletes compete in an inclusive, fair, safe and respectful environment and can move forward with a clear understanding of the new policy.”
Nevertheless, the schools that forfeited volleyball matches have the backing of politicians in their states. Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little recently signed an executive order barring sports teams at Boise State and other public schools in the state from playing against teams with transgender athletes.
A federal judge blocked Idaho from becoming the first U.S. state to enact a ban on transgender women competing in female public school sports in 2020, upholding a challenge by a transgender Boise State student. Idaho. Atty. Gen. Raúl Labrador requested that the U.S. Supreme Court review the ruling, noting that Idaho is one of 25 states that have passed laws restricting transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity.
Wyoming’s decision to forfeit was backed by Gov. Mark Gordon in a social media post: “I am in full support of the decision by @wyoathletics to forego playing its volleyball match against San Jose State. It is important we stand for integrity and fairness in female athletics.”
Mountain West schools UNLV and New Mexico have said they will play scheduled matches against San Jose State.
The issue became public when San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit in September against the NCAA filed by former All-American swimmer and anti-trans-athlete activist Riley Gaines. The suit alleges that NCAA transgender eligibility policies violate Title IX and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Slusser alleges in the lawsuit that the inclusion of a transgender player on the women’s team poses an unfair advantage and safety hazards. Slusser also alleges that she was assigned to share a room with her teammate without being informed they were transgender. This is the third season the transgender player has been on the San Jose State roster.
Slusser appeared on a Fox News program and granted an interview to conservative sports site Outkick, where she accused the school of forcing her to live with a transgender teammate and demanded the teammate be banned from the team.
San Jose State told the San Francisco Chronicle it has had no reports of anyone being significantly injured in their volleyball matches or practices over the last several seasons. The school continues to support the inclusion of the transgender player on the team.
“At San Jose State, we condemn any targeted campaign against any of our students, and we will continue to live the values outlined in the California State University Non-Discrimination Policy,” the school said in a statement. “Our athletes all comply with NCAA and Mountain West Conference policies and they are eligible to play under the rules of those organizations.”
San Jose State coach Todd Kress spoke recently about the impact of the issue on his players. Social media has been rife with exaggerations about the physicality of the transgender player and how hard they hit the ball, Kress said, and his players have received hate mail.
“There have been outside forces who have sought to divide our team, our university, our conference and our sport,” he said. “I know it’s been weighing on the players in our locker room who have put in years of hard work.
“Some of [the hate mail], to be honest, is disgusting …. At some point, the people that are sending those messages, I think they need to wake up, look at themselves in the mirror and really question who they are as human beings, and what their end game is. Is their end game to try to damage the mental health of 19-, 20-year-old athletes?
“I just have faith that we’ll eventually be able to put the outside noise aside and be able to play for each other and find love for one another again.”