Trans Athlete Battle at San Jose State Escalates National Debate: Here's What Trump Promised to Do
The women's volleyball team at San Jose State University is putting a spotlight on transgender athletes in an unexpected way. The school suspended its assistant coach for joining a federal lawsuit against the NCAA. The suit focuses on a reported trans athlete who plays for the coach.
Associate Head Coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, of the San Jose State Spartans women's volleyball team, is under indefinite suspension after filing a Title IX complaint against the school. She says that player Blaire Fleming is transgender and should not be allowed to play.
"Safety is being taken away from women, fair play is being taken away from women, we need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women's sports as we know it right now will be forever changed," said Smoose to Fox News.
In a statement, the university said, "The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women's volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter."
San Jose State has not responded about whether there is a trans athlete on the roster although several schools have forfeited games refusing to play against the Spartans.
Spartans' co-captain Brooke Slusser and other team members are suing their head coach, the school, and their Mountain West Conference for allowing a transgender athlete on the team. Slusser also joined a lawsuit against the NCAA spear-headed by activist Riley Gaines.
"It's amazing that other teams in the conference can just stand up and just say, no, we are not doing this, and yet our school is still okay with having one person on our team that is causing all of these issues and yet will not get rid of them," Slusser told Fox.
She says the overall situation has left her feeling unsafe and there have been multiple threats on her life.
"Well, it's retaliation – that's the message that's being sent loud and clear, do not oppose us, do not even dare to question our motives or else we will get rid of you," said women's sports activist Riley Gaines to Fox News.
President-elect Donald Trump said this issue will be solved immediately when he returns to the Oval Office. No men in women's sports.
"You just ban it, the president bans it, and you just don't let it happen," Trump told Fox News Host Harris Faulkner during a pre-election town hall meeting.
That would likely happen in the form of an executive order according to The Heritage Foundation's Sarah Parshall Perry.
"That effectively undoes the initial executive order from the Biden-Harris administration, which told all of the cabinet secretaries to take all of their federal laws on sex discrimination and expand them to include gender identity discrimination. From that point, a host of ills was birthed, so now the President-elect is going to have a lot of work to do, but the first thing he can do is issue an executive order, making sure that sex means male and female," Perry said.
And she adds that it would allow Title IX to revert back to its original intent. "It leveled the playing field by the feminists 52 years ago. Unfortunately, it has been turned on its head," Perry said.
Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya told Fox News, "This is insane, not only has it taken spots away from women on teams and awards away from women on teams, it has asked normal people to deny the truth that men and women are different. It is forcing people to shut up and not say what is true."
Meanwhile, athletes from several other universities have filed Title IX lawsuits for forcing schools to compete against transgender players. A case is also now before the Supreme Court and Perry says this will not be over until there's a ruling that "sex" in federal law means male and female. The High Court could make a decision as early as next spring.
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