It all seems so familiar. We reported, in December of 2021, how the female members of the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team were told to keep their mouths shut about Will ‘Lia’ Thomas, the mentally ill man male who claimed he was female on the team:

‘It’s bringing people to tears’: SECOND UPenn swimmer speaks out against trans Lia Thomas competing for the women’s team and says the crowd was silent when she won most recent meet

• An second anonymous female swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania has spoken out to say she and her teammates are upset by transgender teammate
• Lia Thomas, 22, smashed three US swimming records at an Akron, Ohio contest last weekend 
• Thomas also gave an interview to SwimSwam touting the fairness of inclusive but controversial IOC guidelines allowing transgender athletes to compete 
• Thomas previously competed for the school’s men’s team for three years before joining the women’s team with her last men’s competition in November 2019 

By James Gordon | Published: 18:29 EST, 10 December 2021 | Updated: 21:33 EST, 10 December 2021

A second female swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania has aired her frustrations and fury as her transgender teammate Lia Thomas continues to smash records.

The entire team has been ‘strongly advised’ not to speak to the media and the second swimmer has been granted anonymity.

Nevertheless, the teammate stepped forward to tell how UPenn swimmers are ‘angry’ over what has been perceived as a ‘lack of fairness’ as Thomas smashes record after record in the pool.

The officials at the University of Pennsylvania told the women basically to shut their mouths and swim. Another female team member said that “she feared for her ability to find employment after graduating from college for sharing her honest opinion about a transgender teammate,” a fear that the university’s officials pushed. In a letter that sixteen of Mr Thomas’ teammates anonymously released, they stated that they “have been told that if we spoke out against her inclusion into women’s competitions, that we would be removed from the team or that we would never get a job offer.”

Well, it’s happening again, this time in Nevada:

Nevada volleyball player nearly forced to face transgender opponent cries, alleges school pressured team to compete

By Jackson Thompson, Fox News | Sunday, October 27, 2024 | 12:21 AM EDT

Players on the University of Nevada, Reno women’s volleyball team held a press conference Saturday to address their school’s reluctance to forfeit a match against a team with a transgender player.

Alongside former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines, multiple players spoke about the situation on the day they were scheduled to face San Jose State.

The program officially announced it would forfeit the match Friday due to not having enough players, but the players had told their athletic department they didn’t want to play San Jose State weeks earlier.

Wolf Pack team captain Sia Liilii broke down in tears from the minute she took the podium while she recounted her experience telling school officials she didn’t want to compete against a transgender player.

We previously reported on the university’s insistence that the match could and would not be forfeited:

“The University and its athletic programs are governed by the Nevada Constitution and Nevada law, which strictly protect equality of rights under the law, and that equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin,” the statement continued. “The University is also governed by federal law as well as the rules and regulations of the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference, which include providing competition in an inclusive and supportive environment.”

“The University intends to move forward with the match as scheduled, and the players may choose not to participate in the match on the day of the contest,” the statement concluded. “No players will be subject to any team disciplinary action for their decision not to participate in the match.”

I’m certain that there were lawyers involved, holding that the match couldn’t be forfeited in advance. However, the school later decided to move the match out of Nevada to the Pyrite State, which allowed the school to notify a forfeit due to not having enough players to make the trip. I’m sure that lawyers were involved in that as well. Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2.

(Sia) Liilii (women’s volleyball team captain) said Saturday that when her teammates approached school officials expressing their desire to forfeit the match, they were lectured about “not understanding science” and asked to reconsider their stance.

“We felt unsafe and dismissed,” Liilii said, sobbing. “We met with our school officials to give them our team’s new statement, but they wouldn’t even hear it. We were told that we weren’t educated enough and that we didn’t understand the science. We were told to reconsider our position.”

I’m pretty sure that the team members did understand the science, and that XX ≠ XY. But here’s the money line:

Nevada sophomore Masyn Navarro alleged her teammates have been told to “stay quiet” about the controversy during the press conference.

“It should not be this difficult to stand up for women. However, we will now take this opportunity to stand up as a team, as some of us have been told to stay quiet,” Navarro said.

The University of Pennsylvania is a private school, and does have the authority to impose consequences if students violate certain rules, but the University of Nevada is a public school, and the University telling the players to shut their traps is a direct violation of the First Amendment.

‘Shutuppery’ is the mantra of today’s left. The people who so strongly believed in freedom of speech don’t find it nearly so important when leftist ideas are being challenged.