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,…
