This site reported, on October 28th, about the efforts of collegiate officials to stop female athletes from complaining about male members on their teams or having to compete against males who claim to be female on other teams.
Well, no, complains the Athletic Director of the University of Nevada at Reno, that’s not what happened at all!
Nevada AD addresses allegations of pushing volleyball women to face trans athlete, says she apologized
A player alleges the university told them that the trans athlete opponent would be at a disadvantage
By Jackson Thompson, Fox News | Wednesday, October 30, 2024 | 7:35 AM EDT
The University of Nevada, Reno athletic director Stephanie Rempe addressed a recent national controversy surrounding her women’s volleyball program in a statement to Fox News Digital.
A dispute between volleyball players and the athletic department over whether to compete against a team with a trans athlete resulted in a last-minute forfeit due to not having enough players to participate on Friday. Players had told the university they did not want to play the match, but the program refused to forfeit until the day before it was scheduled.
Team captain Sia Liilii then alleged that the school told her and her teammates that “they didn’t understand the science” and to “reconsider their position,” at a press conference on Saturday.
On Sunday, Liilii alleged that she and her teammates were told the trans opponent “was at a disadvantage” due to the medication taken to transition from male to female, during the “Stand With Women” event in Philadelphia.
Why, how odd. A site search of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website for “Stand withe Women” didn’t have any story on that event.
Sophomore Masyn Navarro alleged her teammates had been told to “stay quiet” about the controversy during the Saturday press conference but did not specify who told them.
Athletic Director Remke denied it all:
“I did not tell, and am unaware of any member of the athletics administrative team telling members of our women’s volleyball team that they ‘weren’t educated enough,’ that they ‘didn’t understand the science,’ that they should reconsider their position or that they should ‘stay quiet’ regarding their participation in an Oct. 26 match that was scheduled against San Jose State University.”
Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she? But note how she expressed it: she stated that she never stated those things, and that she was unaware of anyone else saying so.
Absent an actual recording of the meeting, we have no evidence of who is telling the truth, but the “didn’t understand the science” remark had been reported a couple of weeks earlier.
It isn’t difficult to imagine the university trying to claim that Brayden ‘Blaire’ Fleming was somehow disadvantaged, or, as was previously reported, isn’t really that good, but whether those claims are accurate or not misses the point. It isn’t that males should be allowed to compete in women’s sports based on how good or poor they happen to be, but that they shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports period. If you are male, compete in men’s sports!
The university actually was put in a problematic legal position. Because the state constitution prohibits discrimination against a whole host of things, including “gender identity,” if the university refused to play SJSU due to the presence of Mr Fleming, on the UN-R campus, there could be legal problems. So UN-R and SJSU moved the contest to San José, and the forfeit wouldn’t occur in Nevada. More, when the UN-R players didn’t appear for the match, it was a forfeit:
On Thursday, (October 24th) the Nevada women’s volleyball team traveled to Fresno State to take on the Bulldogs. They lost, 3-2.
According to OutKick sources, Nevada provided two buses for players. One bus was destined for San Jose State, for players who wanted to play against the Spartans and Blaire Fleming.
The other bus was destined for Reno, to take the women home. The players elected to go back to Reno.
Because of that, the school officially announced on Friday that they would not play the match against San Jose State.
“Due to not having enough players to compete, the University of Nevada women’s volleyball team will not play its scheduled Mountain West Conference match at San José State on Saturday, Oct. 26,” the school said in a statement.
So, UN-R forfeited the match not because SJSU had a male player, but because not enough UN-R players were available to compete. Yup, that’s the lawyers being involved.
So, who do you believe? Do you believe the very professional Athletic Director, with the school’s lawyers telling her what to say and how to say it, or do you believe the athletes, in their late teens and early twenties, who don’t have professional public relations people behind and scripting them, who are going against the flow and political correctness, who are taking a team loss for the greater good?
I know who I believe!