San Jose State University’s volleyball team is the latest flash point in a dispute about transgender athletes in women’s sports, which escalated when a group of players and a coach sued the Mountain West Conference and SJSU, alleging that the school and conference violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX by allowing a transgender athlete to play for a women’s sports team.
Those who filed the lawsuit sought to exclude the player, who has not publicly spoken about gender, from competing for the Spartans in the Mountain West Conference tournament this week. The Spartans are expected to play Friday. A judge ruled Monday that the player could compete and an appeal request was denied Tuesday.
The case is playing out in a broader political moment where more than two dozen states, largely at the urging of Republican legislators, have passed laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in women’s divisions. Other lawsuits are in progress across the country; in March, a group of college athletes filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over the inclusion of Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, in competition in 2022.
Opponents of transgender women competing in women’s divisions say that they have an unfair advantage over cisgender women when it comes to athletics, particularly in cases where transgender women go through male puberty before transitioning. Many supporters of trans women in sports say that outright bans amount to discrimination and target a very small number of people.
Restrictions and requirements around testosterone suppression exist in many sports at various levels. Still, the science around differences in performance between transgender and cisgender athletes is far from settled, in part because there are relatively few known transgender athletes competing at elite levels. One recent study financed by the International Olympic Committee contradicted broad assumptions about advantages often made by those seeking bans.
The issue is impossible to separate from broader politics, especially in the United States, as transgender people face high rates of harassment and as politicians regularly turn to the topic as they campaign and govern.
The Athletic is not naming the SJSU athlete because the athlete has not publicly identified. The school has not publicly said whether the athlete is transgender.
Here’s the latest in the case.
Teams forfeit games against SJSU
A group of schools first began forfeiting games against SJSU in September, including Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State, the University of Wyoming and the University of Nevada. The team has taken six wins since the start of the season due to no contest.
The player involved has been on SJSU’s team since 2022. Some of those same schools played SJSU in previous seasons when the player was on the team, but only began forfeiting in 2024.
One of the SJSU athletes bringing the case, co-captain Brooke Slusser, said in the complaint that her teammate, who was also her roommate, came out to her in April as a transgender woman. In a ruling allowing the player to compete this week, the judge wrote that “No Defendant disputed that SJSU rosters a trans woman volleyball player.”
Players and coach sue SJSU and Mountain West
Slusser, recently suspended assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, two former SJSU players and a group of players from four other conference schools filed a federal lawsuit in Colorado on Nov. 13.
The suit alleges that SJSU and Mountain West violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX by allowing a transgender player to play and suppressing the free speech rights of people who protested. The lawsuit alleges that SJSU officials told players not to speak about the player’s sex or gender identity and that an administrator spoke with Slusser after she spoke out publicly about the player’s participation. The lawsuit also says that the school suspended Batie-Smoose after she filed a Title IX complaint alleging discrimination.
The lawsuit asked the judge to provide emergency injunctive relief, which would have prohibited the player from competing in a conference tournament in Las Vegas on Nov. 27-30.
The lawsuit names Mountain West, commissioner Gloria Nevarez, SJSU, head coach Todd Kress, two school administrators and the trustees for the California State University system as defendants.
Slusser is also part of a different federal lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s transgender policy. The NCAA’s rules, updated in 2022 to follow guidance from the International Olympic Committee, take a “sport-by-sport approach” and require transgender athletes to “document sport-specific testosterone levels.”
Judge denies request, allows player to compete
A federal judge ruled on Nov. 25 that the player involved could compete in the Las Vegas tournament.
Judge Kato Crews wrote in the decision that because of the timing of the case, the plaintiffs could not show irreparable harm to warrant granting the emergency injunction request, which would have barred the player from competing. Crews noted that the case was brought only two weeks before the tournament and that Mountain West’s policy on transgender athletes has been in place since 2022.
Crews also wrote that the plaintiffs did not show that they were likely to win their case, because precedent cases have ruled that Title IX and the 14th Amendment include protections for transgender people.
“The movants’ Title IX theory raised in this case directly conflicts with Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination against trans individuals,” Crews wrote.
A quick appeal fails
On Monday, the players and coach bringing the lawsuit asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Crews’ decision. That request was denied.
Clerk Christopher Wolpert wrote that the “Plaintiffs’ claims appear to present a substantial question and may have merit,” but ultimately agreed with the initial decision regarding the late timing of the case. Wolpert wrote that Mountain West’s policy had been in place since 2022, the player involved began playing for SJSU in 2022 and information about the player’s identity became public in the spring of 2024, but the plaintiffs did not bring the lawsuit until November of 2024.
“The district court concluded that granting the requested injunctive relief at this late hour would be highly prejudicial and harmful to the defendants,” Clerk Christopher Wolpert wrote.
SJSU is the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will play Friday against the winner of the match between No. 3 Utah State and No. 6 Boise State, both teams that forfeited against SJSU earlier in the season. The overall winner of the tournament will go to the NCAA tournament in December.
(Photo: Ian Maule / Getty Images)
