In October, players on the University of Nevada Reno women’s volleyball team were involved in a highly publicized dispute with the university and its athletic department over whether they would play a competition against San Jose State University.
San Jose State had a trans athlete on its roster at the time.
The Nevada players privately approached university officials to express their desire to forfeit the game and join four other programs that declined to play SJSU. But Nevada did not honor that request and instead released a statement insisting that it play the match. Nevada also insisted that its players be allowed to skip the game without facing discipline.
The team ended up losing the day before the match was to be played because there were not enough players. However, the university has said it has held discussions with the players about potential “legal issues” that would arise if the match were not played.
“University officials met with the Nevada volleyball team and discussed scenarios of what could happen if they chose not to play. One of the scenarios discussed revolved around potential legal issues for violating the Nevada Constitution,” according to a statement provided exclusively to Fox News digital.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
The state’s constitution was revised in 2022, when Democratic lawmakers voted to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to the list of diversity classifications protected by state law.
“The University of Nevada was prohibited by law from issuing forfeits for reasons related to gender identity or expression. As a state university, a forfeiture for reasons related to gender identity or expression could necessarily constitute discrimination and violate the Nevada Constitution,” Nevada’s statement said.
Nevada’s statement was in response to allegations made by Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS).
Smith met and spoke with multiple Nevada team players during the dispute, and leads the legal advocacy group that filed a lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West Conference over its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.
“At UNR, school administrators warned athletes that they could face legal action if they refused to compete against SJSU’s team, which included a male starter,” Smith told Fox News Digital.
The dispute between the players escalated into a national controversy that even attracted mainstream political attention in the weeks leading up to the November election.
Nevada players, including captain Sia Liilii, publicly spoke out against the university several times for its refusal to forfeit the match. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s presumptive National Intelligence nominee, and Sam Brown, former Nevada Senate candidate, even visited the team for a photo op and interview.
The magnitude of the controversy only increased as the October 26 match date approached. On October 22, Nevada and San Jose State announced that the match would be moved from Nevada’s campus in Reno to San Jose State’s campus in California’s Bay Area, claiming that the location change was “in the best interests of both programs and the source’. -are of the student-athletes, coaches, athletics staff and spectators.”
But then, the day before the game, Nevada announced that its team would forfeit, citing that it did not have enough players willing to participate. Nevada suffered a loss on its record for the game and then went just 1-7 to end the season.
Nevada players previously spoke about the pressure they faced from college to play the game in a game press conference at their university which was held on the day of the originally scheduled competition on October 26th.
Liilii broke down in tears from the moment she took the stage as she recounted her experience telling school officials she did not want to compete against a transgender player.
“We felt unsafe and fired,” Liilii said, sobbing. “We met with our school officials to give them our team’s new statement, but they didn’t even want to hear it. We were told that we were not educated enough and that we did not understand the science. We were told to reconsider our opinion. position.”
Nevada sophomore Masyn Navarro claimed her teammates were told to “keep quiet” about the controversy during the press conference.
“It shouldn’t be this difficult to stand up for women. However, we will now take this opportunity to stand up as a team as some of us have been told to stay quiet,” Navarro said.
Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe previously made a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the allegations made during the press conference.
“I did not tell, and I am not aware of, that any member of the athletics administrative team told the members of our women’s volleyball team that they ‘weren’t adequately trained,’ that they ‘didn’t understand the science.’ , that they had to reconsider their opinion. position or whether they should ‘keep quiet’ about their participation in an Oct. 26 game scheduled against San Jose State University.”
Rempe said she apologized to the players for how they were notified that the university planned to continue with the game even after the players voted to lose.
“On October 14 and 22, I spoke with the team for less than five minutes each time and those meetings had an operational nature. At all three meetings, I shared our sincere apologies for not sharing the October 3 statement. prior to their match against UNLV As has been stated several times, we continue to support the rights of the volleyball players who choose to participate or not,” Rempe said.
Article I, Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution provides that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this State or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”
But Liilii is now one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players involved in the lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West over its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.
San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser is leading the lawsuit and is involved in a separate lawsuit against the NCAA, citing her experience sharing a team, bedroom and locker rooms with the trans athlete while knowing about the birth gender of the player active was withheld. her through the school and conference for an entire season.
HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORTS CHANGED THE 2024 ELECTIONS AND Ignited A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE
The other players on the list of plaintiffs are Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Macey Boggs, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging the trans player received favorable treatment, is also a plaintiff.
Smith told Fox News Digital that many of the players had expressed fear of retaliation from their school in deciding whether to join the lawsuit.
“The most common first question we hear from female NCAA athletes seeking support is, ‘What can my school or the NCAA do to retaliate against me if I speak out against allowing men in women’s sports?’ They are often terrified of losing scholarships or being kicked off their team,” Smith told Fox News Digital.
“The first reassurance we provide is that these athletes have a constitutional right to freedom of expression. They can speak out or forfeit in protest of discrimination, Title IX violations or increased safety risks when competing against a male athlete – without fear of retaliation either way. of the lies their schools can tell them.”
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports reporting on Xand subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
