In response to conservative concerns about transwomen athletes—biological men—competing in women’s sports, the left typically either denies the issue or insists it poses no disadvantage to biological female athletes. However, the story of former San Jose State University (SJSU) women’s volleyball player Brooke Slusser reveals the harsh reality: gender ideology extremism has left women unprotected.
Slusser, who joined Riley Gaines’s lawsuit against the NCAA in September 2024, is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against SJSU and the Mountain West Conference, which was filed in November 2024. Slusser, along with 11 other plaintiffs, claimed that her coaches and administrators withheld the true sex of her transgender teammate, Blaire Fleming.
“Slusser has alleged that she was never told what Fleming’s biological sex was when Slusser transferred to San Jose State in 2023, one year after Fleming did,” according to Fox News Sports. “Slusser also alleges she shared living spaces with Fleming and frequently was assigned to share hotel rooms for road games because Fleming requested it.” Like many female athletes, Slusser felt uncomfortable sharing intimate spaces, such as the locker room, with a biological male.
Fleming stands taller than most female volleyball players and is known for spiking the ball at speeds women struggle to defend. He began his college career at Coastal Carolina in 2020. After his freshman season, Fleming entered the transfer portal and didn’t compete for 22 months. Remaining at Coastal Carolina would have violated South Carolina’s Save Women’s Sports Act, passed in May 2022, which bars biological men from women’s sports, as reported by Fox. Former SJSU head volleyball coach Trent Kersten allegedly recruited Fleming as a transfer and awarded him a full scholarship—despite reportedly knowing Fleming is male.
Since taking a stance, however, Slusser has “faced on-campus harassment, online threats and mental health issues.” Once the co-captain of the women’s volleyball team at SJSU, she has been ostracized from campus. And having been subjected to severe harassment, Slusser—and some other teammates—are now completing their final semester online.
[RELATED: San José State’s Dispiriting Volleyball Saga]
Slusser’s case shows how gender ideology in higher education has blurred the line between inclusion and fairness. Transgender advocates insist that transgender athletes deserve the same opportunities as “cis, straight” (a term coined by the left to mean a person whose gender identity aligns with his or her sex at birth) students but ignore the reality that allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports puts female athletes at a disadvantage. Men who have undergone puberty retain biological advantages that undermine fair competition, costing women like Slusser titles, equal competition, and even their sense of safety.
Beyond competition, privacy concerns in shared spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms further complicate the issue. Historically, women have fought for sex-segregated spaces to ensure their safety and comfort. However, under gender identity policies, objections to transgender individuals in these spaces are often dismissed as discriminatory. Expecting female athletes to accept biological males in areas where privacy should be guaranteed—or risk being labeled intolerant—is both unfair and dangerous.
Though Biden’s 2024 Title IX rule—expanding sex to include gender identity—was struck down in January by a federal court in Kentucky, it opened the floodgates for full transgender access to sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms. Now, the Trump administration is doubling down on eliminating gender ideology in schools. In January, the Department of Education—now slated for shutdown—announced it would enforce Title IX under the 2020 rule, which defines sex as binary. Trump has also mandated that colleges comply with his executive order banning biological males from women’s teams or risk federal funding cuts and legal action.
Inclusion of transgender athletes has, in practice, led to the exclusion of female athletes. Slusser, for example, has been pushed to the sidelines, stripped of fair competition, and even forced to the online abyss. What was framed as a push for equality has instead sacrificed women’s rights and safety in the name of ideology. But with legal challenges mounting and policy shifts underway, the tide may be turning. As institutions face renewed scrutiny and consequences for prioritizing inclusion over fairness, there is hope that women’s sports will once again be protected as a space for female athletes.
Image: “SJSU sign” by San José Public Library on Flickr & mbongo on Adobe Stock; Asset ID#: 45099919
As one who has been both told that women are identical to me and also superior to me, who has been told this (by persons in positions of authority) for fifty years, I must admit to more than a little bit of schadenfreude.
That said, let’s look at basic statistics.
The average American male is 5′ 09″ — I don’t think there is a female varsity volleyball player less than six feet tall, which is clearly an advantage over the average male, so how is it relevant that the average woman is 5′ 04″?
I saw the video of the game where the actual female player twisted her ankle — she clearly came down wrong, with her foot not in a position where it was able to support her weight, and gravity (and her weight) did the rest. This happens to guys, too. It’s happened to me, more than once.
Now if he/she/it is bashing balls into people’s faces and injuring them, there ought to be rules against that, rules that are enforced with sufficient vigor to either preclude such acts or remove perpetrators from the team. I also fail to understand how a female of the same size would be more likely to have her face smashed in. And I don’t think that anyone — male, female, or confused — should be subjected to this, it’s only a game after all…
But what I really have a problem with is saying that women can’t compete with men, while concurrently arguing that they can, but then that they don’t have to meet the male standards. How can we have female police officers and female firefighters if they aren’t able to meet the same physical standards that we need male police officers and firefighters to meet?
Oh, simple, we don’t expect them to. See, for example:
https://www.maine.gov/dps/msp/join/requirements
A male needs to complete a 1.5 mile run in 12:38 while a female gets over two minutes longer, she only needs to finish it in 14:50 — so who is more likely to catch the fleeing felon?
And why should we respect the female officer who can meat (likely beat) the 12:38 male minimum?
It’s like being half pregnant — either women are equal to men in physically demanding environments, or they aren’t and have to be segregated for it to be “fair.” (And what about all the 5′ 04″ women who’d love to play volleyball???)
As to not wanting to room with Slusser, how about with lesbians? I know someone who had to drop out of a theater major because he was tired of being hit on by gay males — that’s not homophbia, that’s sexual harassment.
Remember that sex segregation for privacy was based on the presumption that everyone was heterosexual and anyone else was criminally insane, and would be dealt with as such. (E.g. the Mass State Police arrested two Smith College professors for “suspicion of homosexuality” in 1964 — that’s documented.) The 22 story UMass towers only have one bathroom per floor and I’ve had female students tell me that they felt way safer going into the male bathroom on their own floor at 2 AM than going up or down a floor and worrying about whom they may encounter in the stairwell. And knowing what has happened in those stairwells, I can’t say I blame them…
I think that the DSM IV-IR was right — Slusser is mentally ill — but what upsets me is the fact that women are considered equal to men when it benefits women, and women are not equal to men when it benefits women — how is this not a war on boys?
Hence a wee bit of schadenfreude…