Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez is speaking about the controversy that erupted when five college women’s teams boycotted games against San Jose State University women’s volleyball after the school allowed a man identifying as a woman to join their team.
Nevarez moaned about the “negative attention” that the conference is suffering as the women turn their backs on authorities who are permitting transgender players in women’s volleyball.
“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention. It just doesn’t feel right to me,” Nevarez told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Nevarez admitted she was still “learning a lot” about the transgender issue, but she blamed the whole controversy currently swirling around women’s volleyball on “politics.”
“I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out,” she exclaimed. “The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”
But “politics” is not what many of the women have mentioned in their statements on why they are boycotting games against SJSU.
What they do cite is safety and fairness.
For instance, the players on Nevada’s team put out a statement reading, “We, the University of Nevada Reno women’s volleyball team, forfeit against San Jose State University and stand united in solidarity with the volleyball teams of Southern Utah University, Boise State University, the University of Wyoming, and Utah State University,” the women said.
“We demand that our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld. We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” they added.
San Jose State very quietly added trans player Blaire Fleming to its team in April without telling his own teammates that he is a man identifying as a woman. And when the news finally got out, other teams began to take notice and announced boycotts of games against the school.
To date, five women’s college teams have forfeited games to SJSU: Nevada, Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, and Utah State.
Trans opponents have seriously injured several women and girls over the last several years, and those injuries have caused a lot of female athletes to pause their support for radical transgenderism.
The NCAA is now being sued by several groups over its policy of allowing transgender players to play as women.
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