Teammate of transgender volleyball player joins lawsuit against NCAA
SJSU women’s volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser on her decision to 'stand up' for biological women in women's sports as schools forfeit games against her squad for having a transgender member.
EXCLUSIVE: San Jose State University women's volleyball captain Brooke Slusser, 21, admits she's only been engaged in politics for the last few years. But she made it a priority to vote a week early in her home state of Texas in this year's election.
Slusser is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the NCAA for its stance on gender ideology in women's sports after she allegedly shared a volleyball court, locker room and room on overnight trips with a teammate without ever being told that person was a trans athlete. She alleges her team made a deliberate effort to hide the gender identity of that player from her and her teammates.
And now she is at the point where she believes a nationwide ban on trans inclusion in women's and girls' sports is "necessary." Former President Trump has endorsed the idea of a ban on transgender athletes in women's sports as a key campaign issue in the weeks, and Slusser expressed support for the idea in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
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"I think it's completely necessary," Slusser said of Trump's proposed ban. "I don't think this should have ever been allowed to be a thing and legal and allowed to happen. And I think so many people know it's not right and, for some reason, they still decide to support it, for whatever other reasons they have, and I think in the back of everyone's heads, you know it's not right. I mean, if you're having to hide something for so long just like SJSU did, you have to know it's not right."
Slusser also said she believes that the issue of trans inclusion in women's sports should even be a political issue. Still, she acknowledges that only one political party has consistently taken steps to oppose and prevent it.
"There is more so one side of a political party that kind of agrees with what I'm doing compared to the other, but then there's still so many people on both sides of the political parties that agree with this," Slusser said. "Trump talking about how, if he was president, none of this would be happening, and it would just be banned. And those statements make it more involved in politics and bring it more to light. So it's engaged in politics, but it has nothing to do with politics at the end of the day.
"One side is fighting it, and the other side has decided not to."
Blaire Fleming, a redshirt senior at San Jose State University, plays as an outside and right-side hitter on the women’s volleyball team. (San Jose State University)
Democrats who have previously voted for laws that would enable transgender inclusion in women's sports have publicly denounced their support for the concept in the weeks leading up to election day. These Democrats include Texas Rep. Collin Allred, Texas Rep. Vicente Gonzalez and Alaska Rep. Peltola. Meanwhile, Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown has recently defended himself when being linked to the issue by claiming he was never in favor of allowing biological males in women's sports.
"In Ohio, this has already been banned," Brown boasted in a campaign ad released in October.
Vice President Kamala Harris has not spoken extensively about her stance on the issue since becoming the official Democratic nominee in July.
"For a Democrat, it's very up in the air. I don't think anyone could guess what would happen with that. I think everyone can assume at this point that not much would change," Slusser said. "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."
Slusser, who is originally from Texas, started her college career at the University of Alabama in 2021 before transferring to San Jose State in the 2023 season. When she moved to California to play volleyball for the Spartans, it was the first time in her life and athletic career she was moving to a state that had laws to protect trans inclusion in women's sports as opposed to restricting it, like in Texas and Alabama.
Transferring to San Jose State put Slusser at the mercy of an administration that is heavily influenced by Democrat politics, and a state that offers more protections for transgender people than most in the U.S.
In the 2020 election cycle, 94.38% of San José State University employee donations went to Democratic candidates in federal elections, while 5.62% of donations went to Republican candidates, according to data from Open Secrets. The university was also one of the many to have required a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students and employees.
California's Unruh Civil Rights Act classifies public schools as business establishments and provides "equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services" to "all persons . . . no matter what their sex."
In Slusser's case, those accommodations for her transgender teammate ended up including a veil of secrecy over their birth sex. And Slusser's experience under all of these conditions has resulted in an experience so traumatic that she insists she would never have transferred to San Jose State if she could do it all over again. She believes that her transgender teammate, Blaire Fleming, has been favored and protected over her and the rest of her teammates, who have concerns about the situation.
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"I think anyone can see that's in my circle and in the gym that they're not here to support me. They're here to support Blaire, and they have decided that they will basically do anything to keep supporting Blaire and to not be there for me and my needs," Slusser said. "I just have decided you can't really trust anyone here."
Slusser says that she "doesn't feel safe" playing for any of the current coaches on staff, even.
San Jose State recently suspended associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who filed a Title IX complaint against the school earlier this week alleging that San Jose State showed favoritism for Fleming at the expense of the women on the team. Slusser says that Batie-Smoose was the only coach at the program to support her in her decision to join the lawsuit and advocate for the protection of women's athletes.
"After we found out that she was released, a lot of the team just kind of broke down and was kind of freaking out, and even one of my teammates was like, ‘I don’t feel safe anymore,' because there's no one now that we feel like we can go and talk to about our concerns or our actual feelings and can actually speak freely in front of," Slusser said.
Slusser says she does not feel safe speaking with anyone else involved in the program, not even head coach Todd Kress.
"You can't truly voice how you're feeling without them just trying to cover it up or act like it's all OK. With Melissa, you could voice how you felt, and she could comfort you and validate your feelings and at least make you feel heard compared to the other coaches," Slusser said.
Kress previously said that the tension created in the locker room over the current situation "wasn't a bad thing" despite the potential impact on the player's mental health.
"Sometimes tension is not necessarily a bad thing, and I'm not saying that there is. But you know, when you do have tension or you do have confrontations, I mean, I'm a person that believes that from confrontation, good things usually happen. We settle our differences, and we work through it," Kress told reporters on Oct. 3.
But Slusser disagrees with the head coach.
"I would have to disagree with him on that, but it does feel like you have to walk on eggshells with having certain people in the locker room that obviously we don't agree with what's happening," Slusser said. "So we're slowly getting more and more angry about the situation without knowing what to do."
San Jose State University provided a statement exclusively to Fox News Digital in response to Slusser's allegations.
"The safety and wellbeing of our student athletes and employees is our highest priority. The university has taken and will continue to take multiple steps to provide security, support, and resources to all members of the team as the program navigates this challenging time," the statement read.
"San José State takes all reports and complaints seriously, but we are unable to provide any information regarding confidential complaints and reports out of respect for the parties involved and due to federal and state privacy laws."
San Jose State has previously defended the program's roster as compliant with NCAA rules.
"Our athletes all comply with NCAA and Mountain West Conference policies and they are eligible to play under the rules of those organizations. We will continue to take measures to prioritize the health and safety of our students while they pursue their earned opportunities to compete," read a statement previously provided to Fox News Digital.
The university has also previously declined to publicly comment on or acknowledge Fleming's gender assigned at birth.
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Slusser says she has not spoken with Fleming at all since joining the lawsuit. When reflecting on interactions with Fleming prior to knowing the player's natural birth gender, Slusser admits she regrets "opening up" with the trans player in ways that she wouldn't have had she known Fleming was a biological male.
Now, looking ahead, Slusser has no plans to return to volleyball after this season. She also says the outcome of the current election will now impact the fate of whether she will even let her potential future daughter play organized girls' sports.
"If I knew that there was a man playing where my daughter was supposed to be playing, or playing against my daughter, my daughter wouldn't be involved in that situation. I would never allow that to happen to my daughter, just knowing that I've been through it, just knowing it's not right and not fair and not safe," Slusser said when asked about the consequences of a potential Harris victory.
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