A federal judge in Colorado has denied a motion that would block a transgender volleyball player at San José State University from competing in this week’s Mountain West Conference tournament.
The lawsuit accuses the conference, university and sports administrators of violating federal Title IX rules by allowing the transgender athlete to start for the SJSU team in compliance with NCAA regulations.
Title IX outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex in education and other activities for schools that receive federal money.
That student-athlete has played with the Spartans for the past three years, with no opposing universities alleging misconduct during that time period.
Current and former student athletes from schools in the Mountain West Conference, including Katelyn and Kiersten Van Virk from Boise State, filed the suit earlier this month. Utah State University also joined as a plaintiff.
Boise State twice forfeited matches to SJSU this year, as did four other schools, due to the outing of the player’s gender identity.
In addition to barring the trans player from competing, the plaintiffs demanded the conference remove forfeited wins from SJSU’s record, as well as the losses from schools that refused to play against the team.
In his denial, Judge S. Kato Crews wrote granting the emergency motion “…would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimum, Defendants and other teams participating in the tournament depending on the results of any reseeding.”
Mountain West Conference schools ratified the forfeiture policy in 2022 and schools who chose not to play against SJSU acknowledged the official losses.
In order to impose a preliminary injunction, plaintiffs must also show they’re likely to win their case on the merits.
Crews wrote that’s unlikely to happen given that existing Supreme Court and federal appeals court precedent interprets Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination to include a person’s gender identity.
SJSU enters the Mountain West Conference championship tournament as the second seed, giving the team a first-round bye.
They’re scheduled to play the winner of Wednesday’s match between third seed Utah State or sixth seed Boise State.
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