Boise State Female Volleyball Team Forfeits in Light of Trans Opponent
The desire to win was put on the back burner when Boise State University’s (BSU) female volleyball team decided safety and fairness were more important than playing against a male opponent.
After the female players from the Idaho team discovered their opposing team had a male player who identified as transgender, they chose to forfeit the match. “Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San José State on Saturday, Sept. 28,” the team announced in a statement released on Friday. “Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Boise State.” And while BSU did not explicitly state their reason for forfeiting, Riley Gaines emphasized that “the cause is clear — SJSU has a male posing as a woman on their team.”
Shortly following the announcement, various lawmakers from the state of Idaho expressed their support for the decision. Governor Brad Little (R) posted on X, “I applaud [BSU] 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.”
Additionally, Senator James Risch (R-Idaho) commended the players “for taking a stand for women in sports,” and noted that “Idaho’s hardworking, talented female athletes deserve a fair playing field where they can compete and WIN.” Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) added that BSU “made the right call,” Arguing that “the safety of Idaho’s female athletes is paramount to the appeasement of a woke agenda.”
But it wasn’t just Idaho lawmakers that supported BSU’s decision. Online, numerous people and groups chipped in their support as well. In response to Crapo’s post on X, Concerned Women for America wrote, “Thank you Senator! The women of America stand with you! May your voice and influence continue to increase!” Another comment stated, “This is a [win] for women’s rights. Well done BSU.” And several other users called for “more” women to stand up for themselves in this way.
According to National Review, the San José State women’s volleyball is undefeated, with a 10-0 record. The trans-identifying student on the team goes by the name Blaire Fleming, and his participation on the team has not gone unchallenged. Beyond BSU’s decision to not play against Fleming’s team, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) has also spoken out against him competing on the women’s team.
In a letter sent to the Mountain West Conference, a collegiate athletic conference involved with BSU’s athletics, ICONS wrote, “[ICONS] urgently demands that you act immediately and decisively to protect and support your women volleyball players and their rights to equal athletic opportunities and fair and safe competition which are guaranteed by Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” It added, “Brooke Slusser describes terrorizing practices and games in which a man is smashing volleyballs into the faces and bodies of young women at speeds of over 80 mph and making a mockery of fair competition.”
As a former Division I athlete, Mary Szoch, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, shared with The Washington Stand, “Volleyball is a sport where the biological advantages men have over women make it not only unfair for men to compete in women’s sports but also dangerous.” In this case, “BSU chose to protect both their integrity and their female volleyball players,” she argued, adding that “state lawmakers must continue to speak up in defense of women’s sports.”
Lawmakers like Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) agree. “Biological men do not belong in women’s sports, and this outrageousness will not change unless courageous women, like BSU’s volleyball athletes, take a stand,” he told TWS.
“If we deny [these] differences between men and women, we put women’s futures at risk,” Szoch concluded. “The decision not to play against a man was about more than just a volleyball game — this was a decision about defending truth.”
Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.