University of Wyoming women's volleyball player Maisie Boggs testified at a state Senate hearing about her team losing two games to San Jose State in 2024 during a controversy involving a transgender player. Blair Fleming.
Boggs, is one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players lawsuit He spoke out against SJSU and the conference, in support of a bill that would require participation in athletic competition to be limited to an athlete's biological sex at birth in the state.
But for Boggs, no amount of legislation will give her another chance to compete in the post-volleyball season. Wyoming's two losses to SJSU on Oct. 5 and Nov. 14 cost the team a shot at the Mountain West Tournament, and her career is now over.
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“My team was handed two losses for refusing to play against a male athlete on a competing team, an injustice that ultimately prevented us from competing in the tournament.” Mountain West Championship. Boggs said. “I was denied the opportunity to play my final collegiate games because we were faced with a situation that no woman should ever have to face, either competing against a team that had a male athlete on a women's scholarship or losing the rest of our season. No woman should have to face that. She should have to face that kind of decision.” .
“We deserve to compete against athletes whose biology matches ours, not against masculine norms.”
Sacrificing the opportunity to compete for a championship to ensure her safety and the safety of her teammates left a lasting impression on Boggs that she won't soon forget.
“My team was told that we didn’t deserve safety on the field, that we weren’t important enough to compete fairly, and that women should remain silent for the benefit of men,” she said. “This issue is not just about wins and losses. It is about whether we respect women and girls.”
Wyoming Republican state Sen. Wendy Shuler, a former college athlete, is the bill's sponsor and chair of the Senate Education Committee. Boggs urged state lawmakers to pass the bill to protect future female athletes from similar situations. The bill was approved by a vote of 4-1.
There are already 25 states that have laws in place to prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports. A bill to prevent this has already been approved at the national level in the House of Representatives.
Boggs hopes her experience will help motivate lawmakers to ensure this doesn't happen anywhere else.
“Although it is too late for me to end my career on the terms my team has, it is not too late for the young girls coming up behind us,” she said. “It is unfair, unsafe and fundamentally a violation of women’s rights for women to be forced to compete with or against biological males.”
Boggs believed that sex was determined by birth “not by feelings.”
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser, Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Sia Li'ili'i, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batty-Smos, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging the university provided preferential treatment to a trans player, is also a plaintiff.
Former NCAA swimmer and prominent conservative influencer Riley Gaines, who regularly organizes with other female athletes affected by transgender inclusion and is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA over the issue, revealed her account of what the players went through, based on discussions with them. During a hearing in Idaho on January 9.
“They've been emotionally blackmailed into believing they're the problem,” Gaines said of the players, adding that Boise State was the only university that showed administrative support for players who wanted to be waived.
“The overwhelming majority of them did not want this to happen to them. No one asked for this. This is not the situation they wanted to be in,” Gaines added. “These girls were terrified. They were terrified of standing up. They were terrified of standing up for themselves. They were terrified of the things that would happen if they just said 'men and women are different.'”
Marchie Smith, co-founder of a legal advocacy group, the Independent Council for Women's Sports, testified that the female athletes who joined the lawsuit felt threatened with retaliation from their university if they spoke out against transgender inclusion.
“What will they do to us if we talk?” Players often ask, according to Smith.
Smith explained these players' questions in a follow-up statement to Fox News Digital.
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San Jose State Spartans players before a game against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Weavers/Getty Images)
“They are often terrified of losing scholarships or being kicked off their teams,” Smith said. “At San Jose State, officials have exploited these fears by telling them to stay quiet because this is Blair Fleming’s story to tell, not their own.”
Louisiana Tech volleyball coach Amber McCray confirmed to Fox News Digital that her team was unaware of Fleming's gender status at birth, and only found out the day after the game via rumors from parents.
LA Tech athletic director Ryan Ivey suggested in emails obtained by Fox News Digital that if officials had known Fleming's natural sex at birth, the team would have “sought a different outcome.”
Slusser, who claimed she had to share bedrooms and changing spaces with Fleming in the suit, told Fox News Digital that the experience was “traumatic.”
“This season has been so painful that I don't even have a proud moment,” Slusser said.
SJSU also acknowledged the recent exodus of volleyball players entering the transfer portal. Almost every remaining player who is still eligible is looking to leave the program.
“Student-athletes have the ability to make decisions about their college athletic careers, and we have the utmost respect for that,” a statement said.
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