The Mountain West Conference refuses to protect its female athletes. So now Congress is weighing in on the issue.
For the past several months, the Mountain West Conference, the governing body for many college sports teams in the western U.S. states, has been in the hot seat. San Jose State University’s (SJSU) volleyball team has been dominating their league due to a transgender player by the name of Blaire Fleming. Despite increasing backlash in the form of lawsuits and national media attention, the Mountain West Conference has refused to change its policy regarding transgender athletes.
This week, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) sent a letter to the Mountain West Commissioner, Gloria Nevarez, asking that she and the conference “update your student-athlete guidelines to prohibit biological males from competing against biological female students in women’s sports.”
The letter highlights that several schools in the Mountain West Conference “have forfeited games, risking their competitive standings to ensure the safety of their female athletes.” The “Conference’s failure to prohibit biological males from competing in women’s sports is unfair to the women and girls who have worked tirelessly to compete at the collegiate level.” While forfeiting their matches was the right choice to protest this unjust policy, these young women should not have to choose between damaging their athletic careers in order to stand up for what is right or risking their physical safety by playing against a man. It is the responsibility of the conference to protect both their health and their opportunities for success in their sport.
Currently, the Mountain West Conference handbook states that “gender equity is the fair distribution of overall athletics opportunities, supported by equitable benefits and resources available to all men’s and women’s teams.” But allowing men to invade women’s private spaces, to rob them of athletic success is not equitable at all.
The letter comes on the heels of a brand-new lawsuit filed by several of the conference’s volleyball players against the Mountain West Conference. Earlier in the season, Concerned Women for America filed a Title IX complaint against SJSU. And one of Blaire Fleming’s teammates, Brooke Slusser, joined the pending lawsuit against the NCAA a few weeks ago.
Every Senator and Representative who represents one of the schools that has forfeited a match against SJSU signed the letter. That includes Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and U.S. Representatives Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho 1st), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho 2nd), John Curtis (R-Utah 3rd), Celeste Maloy (R-Utah 2nd), Blake Moore (R-Utah 1st), and Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming).
It is long past time for the NCAA, Mountain West, and every sports’ governing body that claims to care about female athletes to put action to their words. As the Senators wrote in their letter, “life isn’t fair, but sports should be.”