Group Of Women Suing Conference Over Transgender Player

A dozen women are suing the Mountain West Conference and its commissioner over the participation of a transgender player on the San Jose State University women's volleyball team.

The lawsuit was filed in Colorado Wednesday.

The women are asking for financial damages and an emergency injunction ahead of the Mountain West Women's Volleyball Tournament, which starts in Las Vegas on November 27th.

They want San Jose State senior outside hitter Blaire Fleming, a biological male who is transitioning to female, to be banned from traveling to the tournament.

The plaintiffs include SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser and a former assistant coach at the school, along with at least one player from the four Mountain West schools that have forfeited a combined six games to San Jose State this season, all in protest of the transgender issue.

The schools include Boise State, the University of Nevada, Reno, Utah State and Wyoming.

Fleming's high-speed spikes have hit several female opponents in the face this year.

"If you're wondering why teams are forfeiting against @SJSU, here's the reason. Last night another woman was smashed in the face by a kill from a man posing as a woman. It's unfair, unsafe, and regressive, yet our ‘leaders’ remain silent," Riley Gaines, the host of OutKick's "Gaines for Girls" podcast tweeted Friday morning.

Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, sums up the situation well, in a report she will be presenting to the UN General Assembly next week. Alsalem concludes, “Sports have functioned on the universally recognized principle that a separate category for females is needed to ensure equal, fair and safe opportunities in sports. Multiple studies offer evidence that athletes born male have proven performance advantages in sport throughout their lives, although this is most apparent after puberty. Undermining the eligibility criteria for single-sex sports results in unfair, unlawful and extreme forms of discrimination against female athletes on the basis of sex.”

San Jose State has thus far declined to address the gender identity of any of its players.

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Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli