Women’s student team withdrew from tournament in the United States due to transgender member of opponent

The Boise State University women’s volleyball team announced it has decided to withdraw from its Mountain West Conference semifinal match against San Jose State, which has a transgender player on its roster.

— The decision not to continue playing in the tournament was not easy. Our team overcame a losing streak to earn a spot in the tournament and battled back to defeat Utah State University in the first round on Wednesday. Our female athletes should not have missed this opportunity in anticipation of a smarter, better system that would serve all athletes,” the Boise State University team said in a statement.

The match was scheduled to take place on Friday. San José reached the final directly. His opponent will be the winner of the match between Colorado and San Diego. The Boise State University team twice boycotted regular season games against San Jose due to the presence of a transgender person on the team. University teams from Nevada, Wyoming, Utah and Southern Utah also boycotted games against San Jose.

Players from different universities filed a lawsuit against the conference and San Jose State University officials, demanding that a transgender athlete be banned from participating in the women’s tournament and naming the athlete. However, on Monday, a Denver district court dismissed the suit, and the next day a federal appeals court upheld the decision. Of note, the San Jose transgender man did not reveal his identity, like his University of San Jose, in reliance on federal privacy laws.

It was previously reported that the transgender player was Blair Fleming, who had previously been seen throwing balls into opponents’ faces during matches.

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