The women’s volleyball team at San Jose State University played their last regular season home game on Tuesday night. The season had been tense because of a transgender friend.
A group of people sued San Jose State and the NCAA last week, saying that transgender women shouldn’t be able to play women’s sports.
The last home game of the regular season for San Jose State was against the Fresno State Bulldogs. A few hundred people came to see the game. The university said the crowd was twice as big as usual.
“She’s a volleyball player, and she’s here to see the team and her coach is here inside, so she’s excited to see some high-level volleyball,” said Derek Liu, who lives in San Jose.
A transgender female athlete on the Spartans team caused a lot of debate during the season. One fan said that he supports volleyball players of all ages, including his young daughter.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s happening in the team internally aside from everything that’s going on outside the team, but I think everybody deserves a chance to play,” he said.
This season, six games against San Jose State were canceled by other schools. These schools were Nevada, Wyoming, Utah State, Boise State, and Southern Utah.
At Tuesday night’s game, one fan showed support by holding up a sign that said “BLOCK OUT THE HATERS.” KTVU talked to another fan who had a sign that said “STOP GASLIGHTING GIRLS AND WOMEN.”
“I know a lot of women and girls whose character and confidence have grown because they did well in sports.” “They should have a fair chance to win,” said Blake from Fresno.
Twelve people, one of whom was a San Jose State player, sued the NCAA, San Jose State, and other schools in Colorado last week, saying that transgender women shouldn’t be able to play on women’s teams. There are also voices on both sides of the problem.
It’s clear that San Jose State’s volleyball team is doing well. But how dare they include a trans woman on the team? “That’s where this attitude comes from,” said Gabrielle Antolovich, President of the Board at the San Jose Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Center.
“Two different people at the end of the day.” Sophia Lorey of the California Family Council said, “They are biologically very different, and we need to protect female sports.”
When we called San Jose State about the case that was filed last week, they confirmed that they got it. They say they’ll look it over and react in the right way.
