This week, Las Vegas will be the site of one of the most taboo college volleyball events ever for women.
Blaire Fleming, a transgender athlete from San Jose State, will be at this year’s Mountain West Tournament. Several teams have already forfeited games to the Spartans this season because of the national controversy surrounding Fleming’s appearance.
Just a few days before Fleming is likely to participate in his state in front of a national audience, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo spoke out against the idea of trans athletes competing against women.
In a statement made on Wednesday, Lombardo said that he thinks student-athletes should “only compete with and against members of the same biological sex.”
“Every student, male or female, has the right to play sports in high school and college safely and fairly.” “I think students should only compete with and against people of the same biological sex for their safety and the fairness of the game,” Lombardo said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“As a father of two daughters, I strongly believe that women’s sports should be kept pure.” People have tried to make this problem political, but my view is simple: women should play women’s sports and men should play men’s sports. “Every student should be treated with the utmost kindness and respect, on and off the field, in and out of the classroom. It doesn’t matter what sports team they play on or what extracurricular activities they do.”
When it came to women players at the University of Nevada, Reno in October, Lombardo spoke out about the San Jose State scandal. Nevada players told their sports department that they didn’t want to play Fleming on Oct. 26, when their team was supposed to play San Jose State.
At first, though, the university didn’t listen to what the players wanted and told everyone that the game against San Jose State would go ahead as planned. A Nevada spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the university was doing this so that they wouldn’t break a rule that was passed by Democrats that stops transgender people from being discriminated against.
In a statement on Oct. 15, Lombardo praised the players for standing up for what they believed in.
“As I’ve said previously, I believe there are competition and safety concerns with this issue, and it’s irresponsible for the NCAA to put student-athletes in a position of balancing their safety against the schools, competition and sports they love,” Lombardo said.
“The athletes at the University of Nevada, Reno have decided that they do not want to play against San Jose State, and I fully support their choice.” There is no reason for any student player to be forced to play a game where they don’t feel safe. It is the NCAA’s job to deal with this problem in a way that protects the dignity of women’s sports and the athletes who play in them.
The players then went public with their claim that the school was forcing them to play against the Spartans. Nevada then gave up the match the day before it was supposed to happen, saying it didn’t have enough players to play.
This season, four other teams, including three rivals from the same conference, gave up wins against San Jose State. The Spartans got six more conference wins because of those forfeits. They ended up getting the No. 2 seed in the upcoming playoffs and a bye in the first round.
Now, San Jose State is sure to play a team that gave up a game to them in the semifinals of the playoffs. Utah State and Boise State both refused to play the Spartans. On Wednesday night, they will play in the quarterfinals for the chance to move on to the semifinals.
A spokeswoman for San Jose State told Fox News Digital that the conference is getting ready for all the teams and players that qualified for the tournament to play, but it also has a plan in case some teams have to forfeit. As part of that plan, San Jose State is ready to be named the conference champion if its opponents give up on the way to winning the final.
