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CV NEWS FEED // San Diego State officials tried to quell pro-women’s protests taking place at the college’s volleyball game against San José State University, a team that has made national headlines for including a transgender player on its roster.
Outkick reports that the November 9 game–which San José State lost–drew around 300 spectators, which is three times the typical crowd size. The crowd included pro-women’s sports protestors, who held a “Save Women’s Sports” banner and chanted “No men in women’s sports” during the game, in protest of San José State’s transgender player, Blaire Fleming.
A security guard present at the game told Outkick that the protestors did not violate any guidelines. When an attendee complained about the protestors, he said that the protestors were protected by free speech.
However, San Diego State Associate Athletic Director of Operations Dave Noll tried to put a stop to the protests. He approached an attendee, who was later identified as Patrick Higuera, and told him that he was violating Mountain West Conference guidelines by protesting the presence of men in women’s sports.
Higuera stood his ground and repeatedly told Noll, “Shame on you for not protecting women.”
Security guards stood at a distance but did not intervene.
The protestors included members of San Diego’s Turning Point USA club, a conservative nonprofit organization that supports students.
San José State has a 13-4 record for the Mountain West Conference. Four colleges forfeited their matches against San José State in protest of Fleming’s presence on the team. Two of those colleges, the University of Wyoming and Boise State University, forfeited twice against San Jose.
A pro-women’s sports rally featured many of the players who forfeited their volleyball matches, as CatholicVote previously reported.
Fleming’s teammate Brooke Slusser has joined a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for allowing men to compete in women’s sports.
