Idaho gov praises Boise State’s decision to forfeit women’s volleyball match against team with trans player
Idaho governor Brad Little commended Boise State for forfeiting its match against San Jose State University on Saturday amid controversy surrounding a transgender member of the women’s volleyball team.
Boise State Athletics confirmed the decision in a statement on Saturday. The university did not provide an explanation of the forfeiture.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little recently signed an executive order directing the State Board of Education to ensure the safeguarding of fairness in women’s sports. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San José State on Saturday, Sept. 28,” the statement read. “Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Boise State. The Broncos will next compete on Oct. 3 against Air Force.”
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The republican governor, who recently signed an executive order directing the State Board of Education to ensure the safeguarding of fairness in women’s sports, released a statement praising the decision.
“I applaud @BoiseState for working within the spirit of my Executive Order, the Defending Women’s Sports Act,” his post on X read. “We need to ensure player safety for all of our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women’s sports.”
Boise State is the second school to opt out of playing against SJSU amid controversy surrounding a member of the women’s volleyball team.
Blaire Fleming, a redshirt senior at San Jose State University, plays as an outside and right-side hitter on the women’s volleyball team. Fleming, a transgender athlete, has played three seasons at SJSU after previously playing at Coastal Carolina.
Earlier this week, one of Fleming’s teammates joined several other female athletes in suing the NCAA for Title IX violations.
A volleyball net pictured during the Division III Women’s Volleyball Championship held at the U.S. Cellular Center on November 23, 2019, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
According to the criminal complaint, Brooke Slusser claimed that she was not aware that Fleming was transgender despite sharing rooms together on team trips. Slusser also expressed safety concerns for opponents playing against Fleming.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” Slusser’s complaint said, via the Cowboy State Daily. “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”
“One thing that’s important in this case is really the physical safety issues in volleyball,” Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock, told OutKick. “And that’s what they’re facing in practice every day. So, it’s just a crazy, misguided policy that steals athletic dreams from women and gives them to men, and, at the same time, puts women’s health and safety in danger.”
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NCAA Volleyballs pictured at the Division I Men’s Volleyball Championship held at the Walter Pyramid on May 4, 2019 in Long Beach, California. (John W. McDonough/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player from North Carolina, has been among the most outspoken about transgender athletes in the sport.
In September 2022, McNabb was injured in a high school volleyball game when a transgender athlete on the opposing team spiked the volleyball and struck her in the face, causing her to fall backward and suffer from a concussion and a neck injury.
She continues to suffer from long-term physical and mental injuries caused by the incident.
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