College sports are under scrutiny yet again as transphobic panic in the nation and the incoming administration are preparing to police everything from free speech to the definition of “femininity” in women’s sports.
San Jose State University is engulfed in a lawsuit that draws upon one of the biggest controversies to cloak the nation: allowing a transgender woman to play on their volleyball team. A co-captain of the team, Brook Slusser, joined a federal lawsuit against the NCAA as a plaintiff (led by anti-trans activist Riley Gaines) midseason with the aim of banning her trans teammate from playing.
Later, Slusser, the suspended assistant coach, and other (current and former) players on the team filed a federal lawsuit against the head coach, the university, and the Mountain West Conference, as several schools hopped onto a hateful bandwagon of forfeiting games against SJSU.
Their aim? Making the trans woman, called a trans “man” in the lawsuit, ineligible for play in women’s volleyball.
Let’s make one thing clear: transgender women are not taking over women’s sports—there are actually very few of these players, contrary to the narrative pushed by far-right “feminists.” Only 2 percent of high school students identify as transgender. There are 30 to 40 trans athletes at the collegiate level, out of 523,000 NCAA athletes.
Still, people like to point to athletes like Lia Thomas, a successful trans swimmer, to claim that opportunities are being stripped senselessly from cisgender women.
One person’s success should not be used to justify pushing out all other trans athletes, especially when there is no evidence of domination of sports by trans athletes according to the National Library of Medicine.
Scientific research like this shows that concerns of biological advantages, even after athletes go through painful hormone therapy, are unfounded and overblown. Not to mention, Thomas’s time was slower than all the other NCAA champions in her event, 9 seconds slower than Katie Ledecky’s record in college.
A lot of the “save women’s sports!” crusaders like Slusser, who may have had an inkling that their sudden interest in “fairness” and gender equality would catapult them into right-wing stardom, have no perception of the consequences of their burst of vitriol.
Somehow these same activists go silent when real issues—underfunding of women’s athletics, abusive coaches, or lack of support for women’s teams—come up in the discourse.
Excluding trans women from athletics is an affront to all women. It beckons in gender policing, invasive tests, and the potential banning of any woman who is “too good at their sport” or “too masculine” or has “too much testosterone” to be a true woman.
Just look at how Castor Semenya—the two-time Olympic champion who was born a biological woman—has been banned from the 800-meter event since 2019 because her testosterone levels were found to be too high.
The reality is, there is no such thing as a “fair playing field” in sports. People rejoice over genetic differences in men’s athletics: Michael Phelps’ wingspan is longer than his height, the joints of his ankles bend 15 percent more than his competitors, and his size-14 feet act as flippers to propel him through the water.
Shaquille O’Neal’s 7’1 height and 300-pound frame is glorified and celebrated, even though it gives him “unfair” advantages over other players.
And then we look to female players like Serena Williams, whose muscular physique and domination of her sport as a 23-time Grand Slam Champion have provided the impetus for an onslaught of conspiracy theories that she “was born a guy.”
“People would say I was born a guy, all because of my arms, or because I’m strong,” Williams said to Harper’s Bazaar. “I was different to Venus: She was thin and tall and beautiful, and I am strong and muscular—and beautiful, but, you know, it was just totally different.”
One of the 20 promises of Trump’s GOP platform is to “Keep Men Out of Women Sports.” During a Fox News town hall, Trump commented on a video of the trans volleyball player spiking a ball during a game.
He graciously shared his thoughts: “I saw the slam; it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” he said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men. But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it … You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”
Trump plans to once again ban transgender people from openly serving in the military. They are a pawn in his war against political correctness. Time and time again, he will show trans Americans that they are not welcome in society, not worthy of help, and not natural.
Here is the truth—Trump does not have the constitutional power to just “ban” transgender athletes from playing women’s sports.
But he could direct the Justice Department and the Department of Education to prohibit federal funds to those schools that allow transgender participation in women’s sports.
The NCAA, which just added new requirements for trans student-athletes to provide documentation of testosterone levels before and during season, recognizes the concern that allowing biological males to compete as females could be seen as unfair.
The association posits that these arguments “are based on three assumptions: one, that transgender women are not ‘real’ women and therefore not deserving of an equal competitive opportunity; two, that being born with a male body automatically gives a transgender woman an unfair advantage when competing against non-transgender women; and three, that men might be tempted to pretend to be transgender in order to compete in competition with women” (Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes 7).
Some people decide to medically transition before male puberty, so not all trans women hold biological advantages.
Is this really what we want to come next on the docket? Invasive tests, violation of bodily privacy for both children and adults, and accusations that women are men if they don’t conform to a stereotypical body type or “weaker” physical performance associated with women?
The burden of proof is no longer falling upon those who want to limit American freedoms. In a political environment where this new form of radical right cancel-culture is taking the reins, exercising basic freedoms will require new justification.
This lawsuit is attacking a school for promoting equal access by allowing an averagely skilled volleyball player to play for an averagely skilled college team. As far as “protecting women’s rights” goes, we must protect all women, not just cisgender females who fit the mold of what a woman “should” look like.
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