Blaire Fleming by San Jose State Volleyball / Facebook
CV NEWS FEED // The University of Nevada volleyball players spoke out at a “Women’s Sports are for Women Only” rally on October 26, the same day that they were supposed to play San Jose State.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the rally, organized by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, opposed the presence of biological males in female sports. The Nevada team repeatedly protested competing against San Jose’s male player, and ultimately forfeited “due to lack of players.”
Nine Nevada players went on stage during the rally, wearing “BOYcott” T-shirts. Team captain Sia Liilii said, “We are educated enough, and we do understand the difference between a male and female athlete.”
She continued, “So my question to the [National Collegiate Athletics Association] NCAA and the Mountain West conference is: How many young women will have to be beaten or see their friends beaten out for an opportunity from a male?”
>>NEVADA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM FORFEITS GAME AGAINST SAN JOSE<<
The other players who spoke pointed to the physical dangers of allowing biological males to compete against females and cited that some women have sustained career-ending injuries from male players.
In a speech at the event, Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony said that he supports legislation that prevents males from competing in female sports.
Women’s sports activist Riley Gaines, a main speaker for the event, called NCAA President Charlie Baker “weak-kneed, spineless and morally bankrupt” for failing to speak out against the organization’s policies allowing men to compete in women’s sports.
The current requirements are based on hormone levels, not anatomy or chromosomes.
Gaines demanded that Gloria Nevarez, the commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, “do the right thing.”
“Stop treating girls and women as an afterthought,” Gaines stated.
Liilii told the Review-Journal before the rally that she was initially hesitant to speak out. “Before coming out and releasing the statement with my name on it, I was pretty scared, because I didn’t know how people would react to this controversial topic,” she said, “and I didn’t want to be seen as someone who has hate or any animosity. But the amount of support makes it all worthwhile.”
She also expressed empathy for San Jose’s biological male player, Blaire Fleming.
“No one deserves to be put into a situation where there’s hate coming to them. I know I’ve received it, and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, because it does mess with your mental health,” Liilii said. “It messes with the way you think about yourself. And for this person to be suffering with that, I just feel very deeply for her, and I just can’t imagine — or I can, because I am, too.”
The Independent Council for Women’s Sports is funding a lawsuit against the NCAA rules permitting biological males to participate in female sports. San Jose’s team captain, Brooke Slusser, joined the lawsuit in September and named Fleming in the lawsuit.
