Utah State University’s Old Main is pictured on Oct. 8, 2024. (Photo by Kelly Winter for Utah News Dispatch)
Utah State University — one of the schools that forfeited a women’s volleyball match against San José State University in protest of a transgender student athlete on its roster — has asked a judge for permission to join a federal lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference challenging its transgender participation policy.
State attorneys representing USU filed a motion to intervene Monday evening. The move came the same day Utah’s top Republican state leaders issued a statement urging the university to join the legal fight on behalf of student athletes who filed the lawsuit, one of whom is a USU student and a co-captain of the university’s women’s volleyball team.
“USU requests intervention to assert and protect its own and its female student-athletes’ interests in preserving women’s athletic opportunities during the MWC women’s volleyball tournament and potential invitation to the NCAA championships,” USU’s motion to intervene states. “If the MWC tournament begins and ends without USU’s intervention and ability to assert its interests in the (preliminary injunction) proceedings, USU’s request will become largely moot.”
Transgender athlete dispute goes to federal court; USU volleyball player signs on as plaintiff
The motion says USU’s decision to forfeit the match against SJSU came after a majority of student athletes on the university’s women’s volleyball team indicated in an anonymous survey that they didn’t want to play “due to concerns of fairness” and that they held “strong personal and political beliefs that transgender women should not be permitted to compete in women’s sports.”
“Some of the student athletes indicated that competing against a transgender volleyball student-athlete was dangerous and/or were concerned about their safety,” the motion says.
The decision to forfeit resulted in a loss for USU and a win for SJSU, in line with MWC’s transgender participation policy, which the lawsuit alleges was adopted hastily to punish teams refusing to play SJSU.
“But had USU somehow forced its team to play the match contrary to some team members’ concerns implicating USU’s Title IX obligations, USU would have risked violating Title IX’s provisions and losing federal funding,” USU’s motion to intervene says. “USU has a protected interest in ensuring its compliance with Title IX to maintain continued receipt of an important funding source to help further USU’s mission.”
Utah’s top brass urges USU to join lawsuit
Earlier Monday morning, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams, and House Speaker Mike Schultz issued a joint statement urging USU to join the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Colorado.
“Female athletes deserve the right to a safe playing field, fair competition and equal opportunities,” the governor, Adams, R-Layton, and Schultz, R-Hooper, said in a prepared statement. “By intervening, Utah will send a clear message that these rights are non-negotiable. The NCAA, Mountain West Conference and other institutions across the nation have failed to take action, thereby undermining vital protections and putting female athletes at risk. We will continue to defend our female athletes and the integrity of our athletic programs.”
A dozen plaintiffs — including a Utah State University athlete — filed the 132-page suit, alleging Mountain West Conference’s transgender participation policy violates Title IX and the U.S. Constitution. They’re also asking a judge to declare the SJSU player, whom the suit says is a “biological male who identified as a transgender woman,” as ineligible, and block the player from an upcoming tournament scheduled to begin in Las Vegas on Nov. 27.
Last month, Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez told the Associated Press, “the student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss.”
Of the eleven players and a coach who have signed on as plaintiffs, three are from SJSU: San José State assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, current San José State player Brooke Slusser and former San José State player Elle Patterson.
Batie-Smoose is currently suspended from the team, possibly for alleged privacy violations after she identified the transgender athlete without permission in media interviews, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Batie-Smoose also filed a Title IX complaint claiming the athlete had provided SJSU’s game plan to a Colorado State player ahead of a match, which Colorado State won. The Chronicle reports it has confirmed the complaint has not been substantiated and is expected to be cleared.
The lawsuit came after four college women’s volleyball teams — including from Southern Utah University and Utah State University — forfeited their matches in a boycott against the SJSU team amid concerns about fairness and safety. Plaintiffs are also asking the court to rescind the wins granted to SJSU’s women’s volleyball team because of the forfeited matches, along with the losses.
SUU was the first school to cancel a game, which was scheduled for Sept. 14. Boise State University and the University of Wyoming also forfeited matches. Last month, Utah State University released a statement confirming it wouldn’t participate in a game scheduled on Oct. 23 and that it “will abide by Mountain West Conference policy regarding how this match is recorded.”
However, at the time both Utah universities didn’t directly address the reasons why they canceled the games. Southern Utah University’s statement attributed the decision to the team.
Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan — a lawmaker who has run several bills on transgender issues, including one to restrict access to publicly-owned bathrooms and one setting eligibility standards for transgender student athletes — thanked Cox, Adams and Schultz’s statement pushing USU to join the lawsuit.
“These young women shouldn’t be standing alone on the issue of fair competition, safety and equal opportunities,” Birkeland posted on X on Monday.
Plaintiffs allege USU officials discouraged players from speaking out
Utah State University did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday. However, the lawsuit suggests there could be some friction within the university over the boycott of SJSU’s team.
“After Boise State announced their cancellation the USU head women’s volleyball coach came into a film meeting and stated flatly and emphatically, ‘I don’t know how you guys feel about this, but we will be playing against San Jose State; (the player) is not that talented,’” the lawsuit states.
The USU student who joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, Kaylie Ray (who is also co-captain of the university’s women’s volleyball team), said that “statement by our coach really rubbed our team the wrong way,” according to the suit. “We were shocked that we had no say in the decision, nor were we asked if we thought competing against SJSU was fair or safe.”
Two Utah colleges forfeit volleyball matches amid lawsuit challenging transgender athletes
Ray said after the University of Wyoming canceled their match, “we were further inspired as a team to do something.”
“Several USU Team members communicated to their coach that they thought it was wrong for (the player) to play and that they did not think USU should play against SJSU. However, the Coach was resistant to any protest,” the lawsuit says.
Later, the players held a Zoom meeting with the USU president and athletic director, the suit says, and the USU president asked the players to participate in an anonymous survey about how each player felt about playing in the SJSU match. Shortly after they took the survey, the USU women’s volleyball team learned “they would not have to play the match against SJSU,” according to the suit.
“My teammates and I are glad we are standing up for our rights as women, however, we are making significant sacrifices to do so,” Ray said in the suit. “Title IX is supposed to guarantee us equal opportunities as women, but it is not being interpreted that way by the NCAA, the MWC or by SJSU.”
Ray also alleged some USU officials discouraged her and her teammates from “speaking out about women’s rights,” according to the suit, which included a photo of Ray and some of her teammates wearing “BOYcott” T-shirts that was posted to social media.
Ray, the suit states, was told “by her head coach that her coach had received a message from the head women’s volleyball coach at SJSU stating that it was distasteful for Ray and her teammates to try to make a statement by having their pictures taken in ‘BOYcott’ t-shirts.” Later on, according to the lawsuit, the USU head coach, “in front of the entire team, spoke sharply to Kaylie and another teammate who was also in the photo.”
“The USU Coach accused Ray of usurping the voice of the team and being ‘selfish’ for having the picture posted,” the lawsuit states. “The USU Coach told Ray this was a ‘hot button issue’ and that the USU players should avoid making any more public statements about this issue.”
Plaintiffs allege in the suit “that this pushback on Ray’s protected First Amendment activity took place at a university that allowed its women athletes to express their opinion about playing the SJSU Team and then canceled the team’s game against USU illustrates the fraught and hostile environment for free expression on the men in women’s sports issue” the Mountain West Conference’s transgender participation policy “has created and was intended to create.”
The lawsuit also states Ray said the team has “subsequently been pressed to agree on a statement that they will not protest in the MWC championship tournament and that she has been told that the MWC has been communicating to coaches and athletic departments, informing them they need to get their players in line and end the protests.”
“These communications from USU campus personnel have led Ray and her teammates to be concerned that they will be prevented from playing in the conference championship if they do not say exactly what the MWC is requiring them to say,” the lawsuit says.
Though USU did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Utah News Dispatch on Monday regarding state leaders’ pressure to intervene in the lawsuit, the university did issue a statement to media outlets last week saying it supports student rights, FOX 13 reported.
“USU supports the rights of all students to speak out on important issues regardless of their viewpoint,” the university said in the statement. “Ms. Ray has been steadfast in her advocacy for women in sports and USU supports her right to advocate for her position through litigation.”
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