UNLV volleyball to host San Jose State amid transgender controversy

The UNLV women’s volleyball team will play a controversial match against San Jose State at 6 p.m. Thursday at Cox Pavilion.

The Spartans (13-3, 10-3 Mountain West) have drawn national attention since the season began, taking forfeit victories from five schools amid protests against an alleged transgender player on the team. Four of those were Mountain West teams: Utah State, Wyoming, Boise State and UNR.

When the Rebels (10-13, 3-9) earned a 3-1 road win over the Spartans on Oct. 12, the match was reportedly attended by at least one protest group.

The UNLV athletic department declined to answer questions Wednesday about what safety measures will be taken for Thursday’s game, or whether the university would allow signs or provide extra security. Instead, a spokesperson referenced the Mountain West women’s volleyball game management handbook, which says that athletes, coaches and staff are liable to be sanctioned for conduct that is “unsportsmanlike in nature.”

The handbook also holds institutions responsible for controlling spectators, saying that security escorts should be available when teams exit the court and fans should be asked to leave for repeated “verbal attacks” on a player.

San Jose State, however, was clear regarding its plan.

“We are, as we have been doing for most of the season, sending additional security with the team, and we have made outreach at UNLV as well, which we have done for all of our road matches,” the university’s director of media relations, Michelle Smith McDonald, said.

Keeping quiet

Multiple requests to interview UNLV players and coaches were denied. Questions about why volleyball personnel would not be made available were met with a previously issued statement saying that the Rebels voted unanimously to play all of their matches and that their decisions should be respected.

Separately, every gender studies professor employed by the university did not respond to interview requests.

When UNR’s players spoke out at a “Women’s Sports are for Women Only” rally last month, many of the speeches included implications that players were being silenced for expressing safety concerns about playing against a transgender player. Several members of the team have obtained legal representation.

San Jose State assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose reportedly filed a Title IX complaint last week saying the university’s transgender inclusion policy created a “toxic environment” for women’s volleyball athletes and accused the university of showing favoritism for the alleged transgender player.

Batie-Smoose has since been absent from the team.

The forfeitures began when Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit against the NCAA’s inclusion policies saying she wants teammate Blaire Fleming removed from the team on the allegation that she is transgender.

Slusser has posted multiple times on social media as recently as Tuesday saying that Batie-Smoose was fired, calling the decision “all wrong.”

While multiple politicians have spoken against transgender inclusion in sports in light of the attention on San Jose State, many LGBTQ+ advocates — and, most notably, Fleming — have remained silent.

She and San Jose State have not commented on her gender identity.

‘Political stunt’

UNLV’s student newspaper, the Scarlet & Gray Free Press, has not written about the university playing against San Jose State. Managing editor Petra Molina said that is partially due to being short-staffed, but the decision is also impacted by a desire to be sensitive to a complex issue. The paper will have a reporter at Thursday’s game.

“I can definitely see a sense of support and also recognizing that it’s a difficult issue,” Molina said. “I don’t think anybody really thinks that it’s not hard, but they also do recognize that it’s important to actually talk about topics like this and find a solution that involves inclusivity.”

Chris Mosier, a triathlete and eight-time member of Team USA who became the first known transgender man to represent the U.S. in international competition in 2015, said that no transgender athlete should be outed without their consent, which could contribute to the silence.

“There are many people in and out of sports who support transgender athletes. And also, it’s important for allies to respect another person’s requests for privacy,” Mosier said. “While this may mean the media is only covering one side of a story, we’ve also seen that conservative media is much more interested in this topic than others are.”

Mosier, a policy advocate, described the forfeitures against San Jose State as a dangerous “political stunt.”

“It’s telling that schools, teams and players had played against San Jose State University for the past two years and only have an issue with it now,” Mosier said. “The way lawmakers and the media discuss transgender athletes impacts the way the rest of society thinks about, talks about and treats trans people, and we are about to see the very real impact of this anti-trans wave in the months ahead.”

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.