The San Jose State volleyball team is set to compete in one of the most unprecedented college tournaments in women's sports history this week.
The Spartans will compete in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Tournament, and all eyes will be on senior Blaire Fleming. Fleming's participation in the tournament this week was in question after an emergency hearing in Colorado, when plaintiffs, including Fleming's teammate Brooke Slusser, contested that Fleming should be excluded from this year's tournament on the basis of being a biological male.
However, Fleming is in the clear after a federal judge ruled that the athlete will be allowed to play. With Fleming on the court, the tournament is bound to be at the center of national political discourse over the consequences of trans inclusion in women's sports.
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The situation involving Fleming and Slusser became a national scandal, highlighting an issue that became a deep vulnerability for Democrat candidates leading up to the November election.
The story of Slusser, Fleming and the discourse that rippled throughout the country will come to a head in Las Vegas. Here is how it got there.
On Jan. 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden assumed office, he issued an executive order on "Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation."
This order included a section that read, "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports."
It was just the first in many steps taken by the Biden administration and Democrat lawmakers at the congressional and state level that enabled a sudden wave of trans athletes to compete as girls and women in the U.S. during the current president's term.
It set a clear precedent for Biden's entire party on what the baseline stance on trans inclusion in girls' and women's sports would be.
Fleming came to the Bay Area as a transfer ahead of the 2022 season. Fleming, a Virginia native, transferred from Coastal Carolina as one of the top players in the transfer portal. Fleming previously set a single-game record at John Champe High School with 30 kills in a match in 2019 and a single-season record of 266 kills for the school's girls' volleyball team.
Footage from the athlete's Hudl page of the school-record 30-kill match in September 2019 shows how hard and fast Fleming's spikes came down at the high school level against girl opponents.
According to testimony by former San Jose State assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose in a lawsuit against the university and the Mountain West, Fleming was given a full scholarship. The lawsuit alleges coaches and the athletic department were aware Fleming was a biological male.
Meanwhile, Fleming's arrival on the team, and alleged natural ability to spike the ball harder than the other players, may have ended up costing a female player a spot and a scholarship. Former San Jose State volleyball player Alyssa Sugai, who is part of the lawsuit and joined the team as a walk-on in 2021, alleges she declined offers to transfer to another school to stay at San Jose State for the 2022 season and potentially earn a scholarship.
In April 2023, the Biden administration proposed a plan to forbid outright bans on transgender athletes. The outline of the plan outraged conservatives who labeled it as a ploy to enable trans inclusion in women's sports. However, some on the left thought the plan was actually too right-leaning.
Supporters of the plan argued that it would provide framework for schools and universities to put rules in place to restrict trans inclusion legally. Certain Democrats, including New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, labeled the plan as "indefensible and embarrassing," in a post on X for not being pro-trans enough.
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It was one of the first signs that there was a broad range in the spectrum of beliefs on the issue of trans inclusion in women's sports within the Democratic Party, and a sign that more infighting would be coming.
Slusser came to San Jose State one year later as a transfer out of Alabama. Slusser, a Texas native, was on a full scholarship, just like Fleming.
Slusser's very first residence at the university was shared with Fleming, her lawsuit alleged. Slusser also alleged that no one at any point ever indicated to her that Fleming was a biological male, despite the fact that head coach Todd Kress and others at the university were aware of it.
"Due to her personal convictions and religious beliefs, Slusser would not have roomed with Fleming or changed clothes in front of Fleming if Slusser had known Fleming was male," the court documents read.
"Slusser’s right to protect her bodily privacy was violated by SJSU, Kress, and the MWC through actions, policies and practices that caused her to lose her right to bodily privacy without consent and against her will."
Slusser and Fleming's first season together at San Jose State saw them share rooms together frequently, and the lawsuit alleges it was because Fleming requested it.
"Slusser did learn however that the reason she had been assigned to room with Fleming so often during road trips in the 2023 season was that Kress and other SJSU women’s volleyball officials asked Fleming who Fleming wanted to room with, and Fleming chose Slusser," the court documents read.
Meanwhile, on the court, the team struggled to a 13-18 record and did not even qualify for The Mountain West Tournament.
Then, near the very end of the disappointing season, Slusser learned the truth. The lawsuit claims Slusser overheard a conversation between two San Jose State students, who were not on the volleyball team, in which they referred to Fleming as "a guy," the court documents state. The students then told Slusser that her teammate who she had slept in the same room with and undressed in front of was "a dude."
Slusser says she did not even know what to do with this information when she found out, but it all made sense to her when she thought about how high Fleming could jump and how hard Fleming could spike the volleyball.
However, Slusser just sat on the information and did not rush to any conclusions at the time.
Things changed in April 2024 for San Jose State's team and the country. That month, the Biden administration passed a sweeping Title IX re-write that sought to protect trans inclusion and protection in schools.
The administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions," in April. The administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports.
That same month, an online news article focused on Fleming prompted Slusser to finally confront her teammate about what she had heard the previous semester, per court documents.
The day the article was published, Slusser came back to her apartment, and Fleming and another student asked if Slusser would join them for ice cream. It was there Fleming revealed to Slusser the nature of Fleming's birth gender.
"Slusser asked why Fleming had not shared this information with her before, particularly as they had been living together. Fleming responded that there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up, and that he had been afraid that Slusser might not be his friend if Slusser knew the truth. Fleming also said that if Slusser was uncomfortable with it that Fleming would leave the volleyball team," the documents read.
"Slusser was uncomfortable with Fleming continuing on the SJSU Team as she questioned whether it was safe or fair for the other women on the team and for opposing teams for Fleming to compete on the women’s team."
A team meeting was held days later. It included Kress and other university officials. The lawsuit alleges that in that meeting, players were told not to speak about Fleming's birth sex publicly.
"Criticism of Fleming or his participation on the SJSU Team would indicate bigotry and harm their reputation and could subject them to discipline or loss of their scholarship and could be considered a violation of school policies or state law," the documents read.
The Biden administration's sweeping push to enable trans inclusion in women's and girls' sports saw its heaviest wave of resistance yet in August.
On Aug. 16, The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject a Biden administration emergency request to enforce its sweeping Title IX reforms in states that filed lawsuits or passed state laws in protest of it.
The request would have permitted biological men in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and dorms in 10 states where there are state-level and local-level rules in place to prevent it.
However, the Supreme Court's ruling struck a blow to the administration's national authority on the issue. News of the ruling was widely celebrated in conservative circles and brought more of a mainstream focus onto the issue on a national scale.
The issue garnered so much attention nationally, that even in states where there were no major incidents of it happening, laws were passed to make sure it would not happen. Idaho was one of those states, when Gov. Brad Little passed an executive order to enforce the "Defending Women's Sports Act" in his state. Little told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that there were no incidents of trans inclusion in women's sports that prompted the order, but it was rather the influence of former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines.
Little cited Gaines as the most influential figure in his decision to pass the order.
Gaines, an ascendent conservative influencer, became a lightning rod, drawing attention to the issue of trans inclusion in women's sports amid her ongoing lawsuit against the NCAA. Gaines' experience sharing a locker room and competing against Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships made her that lightning rod.
Gaines then lent her influence to Trump and Republicans on the campaign trail. Gaines spoke at a former President Donald Trump rally in Arizona on Aug. 23, as Trump began to cement the agenda of protecting women's sports as a pillar of his campaign messaging amid Democratic dysfunction on the issue.
Gaines' influence, along with the others who joined her in the lawsuit against the NCAA, planted the seeds for a widespread woman-first counterculture movement against the Biden administration and Democrats over the enabling of biological men in women's sports.
On the last weekend of August, Fleming, Slusser and their San Jose State teammates kicked off their 2024 season at the Cal Fulerton Invitational in Fullerton, California. Their first opponent of the season, Louisiana Tech, took the court against Fleming without knowing about the biological gender of the player.
Louisiana Tech head volleyball coach Amber McCray confirmed to Fox News Digital that her team did not know about the situation involving Fleming's natural birth sex, and they did not find out until the day after the match via rumors from parents.
LA Tech athletic director Ryan Ivey suggested that if they had known Fleming's natural birth sex, the team "would have sought "a different outcome," in emails obtained by Fox News Digital.
It was not long before the Spartans' next opponents caught on to what was going on with Fleming. Eventually, one of the programs decided to do something about it.
Southern Utah's volleyball team became the first team to forfeit its match against San Jose State on Sept. 14.
Armed police protection was assigned to the team starting with a match on Sept. 19 and has been present at every game since. As the media attention only got more intense, the school had to commission the help of police departments in other states for the team's away games.
On Sept. 23, Slusser made the consequential decision to join Gaines and the Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) in their lawsuit against the NCAA, citing her experience with Fleming and San Jose State.
Slusser joining the lawsuit amplified the scale of the national controversy for San Jose State. A university spokesperson, in liaison with the police department, confirmed to Fox News Digital that the volleyball team was told it would be getting added security of some kind after its first cancelation by Southern Utah.
Soon, more teams followed Southern Utah's lead, as Boise State, Wyoming and Utah State all announced forfeits to San Jose State that same month. Each forfeit only amplified the national controversy surrounding the team, and it quickly entered the political conversation.
Gov. Little, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, all Republicans, praised the universities and volleyball teams in their respective states who refused to face San Jose State in public statements.
After a 9-0 start to the season, and by virtue of the forfeits, San Jose State secured its 12th win without even having to play in that many games by the end of September.
The growing nationwide cultural movement to defend women's sports grew in September, as certain logos and merchandise started to become more easily synonymous with the movement. Parents in New Hampshire were banned from a girls' soccer game that included a trans athlete for wearing armbands that read "XX" in reference to the natural female chromosomes.
The incident and a subsequent lawsuit ultimately proved to be a fruitful publicity stunt for the movement and sports clothing brand XX-XY Athletics, founded by former gymnast Jennifer Sey. The brand, tied to the activism of protecting women's sports, just launched earlier this year and saw a surge in popularity when it landed Slusser as a sponsor.
The movement to oppose trans inclusion in women's sports officially became a lucrative business with organic marketing, all in the midst of a heated election year.
San Jose State's first volleyball game of October was overshadowed by fear of Slusser's physical well-being. Slusser previously told Fox News Digital that the night before her team's game against Colorado State on Oct. 3, her teammate received a message warning that teammate to keep her distance from Slusser during the game, because "something bad" was going to happen to Slusser.
Additional police security was assigned to the event, as multiple officers patrolled the floor that night.
Afterward, Slusser said she was made aware of an alleged plot involving Fleming and Colorado State player Malaya Jones that aimed to have Jones spike a ball into Slusser's face during the match. These allegations were included in an eventual Title IX complaint by Batie-Smoose against San Jose State and the lawsuit filed by Slusser and Batie-Smoose.
The university has denied these allegations, and a Mountain West investigation into the incident concluded that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the claims.
Still, it was a point of frustration for Slusser, she said, watching the university go out of its way to protect Fleming. Still, the team continued to play together. Videos of Fleming's spikes hitting opposing players went viral after multiple matches.
Trump himself weighed in on the situation involving Fleming during a town hall event on the Fox News Channel’s "The Faulkner Focus" on Oct. 17. Trump addressed Fleming directly, referencing a video where one of the athlete's spikes was seen hitting the body of another player.
"I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head," Trump said. "But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men. But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it."
Trump used the situation as a springboard to reveal his intention to ban trans inclusion in women's sports entirely if elected. It became a talking point he made sure to reference at every rally from then until election day, as he and Republican allies hammered the Democrats on their growing-unpopular position of protecting trans inclusion.
Eventually, some Democrats had to back off from their previous positions supporting it. Texas Rep. Collin Allred had to release ads disavowing his past support for allowing "boys in girls sports" in a race to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in Texas.
Vice President Kamala Harris hardly ever addressed the issue during her campaign and sidestepped questions about her past positions trans inclusion in various interviews. Trump just kept hammering the issue more and more at every rally and in various campaign ads that repeated the phrase "Kamala Harris is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you."
The consequences of Democrat-passed laws that protect trans inclusion came under scrutiny leading up to a scheduled volleyball match between San Jose State and Nevada on Oct. 26. Leading up to that game, players on Nevada's team approached the athletic department and expressed their desire to forfeit the match. However, the university did not honor those wishes initially.
A Nevada spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the university could not forfeit the match because it would be a violation of an amendment to Nevada's constitution. A 2022 amendment, passed by Democrats, established parameters that prohibited trans discrimination, and the university deemed that forfeiting a match over a trans player would violate that law.
Players came forward publicly condemning the university, garnering the praise and attention of Tulsi Gabbard along the way.
The situation involving the Nevada players speaking out against their university and the NCAA over being pressured to face San Jose State became a national controversy on its own just weeks before the election, in a key battleground state.
Eventually, Nevada forfeited the match the day before the game after it concluded that it would not have enough players to compete.
The Nevada players had prevailed as the country watched a movement that was being driven and powered by the passion and defiance of young women.
Batie-Smoose was suspended from San Jose State's coaching staff on Nov. 2, the same day as the team's game against New Mexico. Batie-Smoose's suspension came after she filed a Title IX complaint that alleged the university was favoring Fleming over Slusser throughout the situation and alleging Fleming's plot to have Slusser hit by a spike during the Oct. 3 Colorado State game.
Slusser told Fox News Digital on November 3 that news of Batie-Smoose's suspension caused players in the locker room to cry, and left them feeling "unsafe."
Slusser also officially came out in support of Trump's proposed ban, calling it necessary and adding that she would not trust Democrats to handle the situation.
"I think it's completely necessary," Slusser said of Trump's proposed ban. "We could trust a lot more that if Trump was elected things would be handled in the right way that we want them to be."
The topic of Slusser's team and transgender volleyball players as a whole became a sudden talking point at every Trump rally and on major cable news talk shows leading up to the election, as Democrats failed to deliver a unified message on the topic.
Trump won the election in a landslide, as Republicans also took control of the Senate and House of Representatives.
The aftermath of the Democrats' crushing defeat caused many of its figures and media pundits to point the finger at trans inclusion as one of the biggest issues that lost them the election. HBO host Bill Maher has devoted ample air time on his weekly show to lambasting Democrats for defending trans inclusion in women's sports and criticizing any in the party who still stand behind it, in the weeks following the election.
On Nov. 7, the New York Times published a story that quoted Democratic Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Tom Suozzi of New York, and each spoke out against trans inclusion and their party for championing it over the last several years.
Other Democrats, like Ocasio-Cortez and newly-elected transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, are still firmly in favor of far-left policies to defend trans athletes that want to compete against women, leaving the party with an unresolved divide going forward.
Biden-appointed federal Judge Kato Crews in Colorado was the latest figure with Democrat ties to enable trans inclusion in women's sports, when he ruled that Fleming would be eligible to play in the upcoming Mountain West Tournament after an emergency hearing by ICONS and Utah State to have Fleming disqualified from competing.
Now, the country will get to watch the product of that ruling, combined with laws in California that protect trans inclusion in women's sports, that have allowed Fleming to take the court with a conference title on the line in Las Vegas.
San Jose State is guaranteed to play either Boise State or Utah State in the semifinal round. Both teams have already refused to face Fleming and the Spartans in the regular season.
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