This mess in collegiate sports just keeps growing more ridiculous by the day. The practice of allowing "transgender women" - men - on women's athletic teams has gotten to the point where to accommodate less than one percent of the population, we are not only allowing the undeserved award of titles and scholarships to young men that should be going to young women, but we are firing coaching staff who object.
That's what has happened at San Diego State, whose women's volleyball team, the San Jose Spartans, has a "transgender woman" player - and who have had other teams walk off the court in protest of being asked to play against a man.
Now, an associate head coach has been fired for speaking out against this unfair practice - and a player has filed a lawsuit over the matter:
A female athlete on the San Jose State Spartans women's volleyball team said they are "distraught" over the sudden firing of their assistant coach who spoke out against the inclusion of a transgender athlete on the team.
Melissa Batie-Smoose, the San Jose State Spartans women’s volleyball associate head coach, was suspended indefinitely after she filed a Title IX complaint against the school alleging that Blaire Fleming, the team’s transgender player, conspired with an opponent to help the team lose a match and injure teammate Brooke Slusser.
In an appearance on "America Reports" Tuesday, Slusser said Batie-Smoose's firing came as a shock to the female athletes who've relied on her as their only sounding board to air their frustrations about playing with a biological male on their all-female team.
"I think you can imagine, she was that one person that everyone felt like they could voice their opinion [to] and truly speak how they felt with the whole situation and feel comforted," Slusser said. "And them taking that away from us … everyone felt distraught. And especially finding out minutes before a game, it was just a horrible situation."
As if Coach Batie-Smoose's firing - excuse me, "indefinite suspension" - wasn't outrage enough, she has been the subject of an attempted removal of her First Amendment rights. And that's unconscionable; Coach Batie-Smoose should be shouting the unfairness of all this from the rooftops, and daring San Jose State to do anything about it. She is, on this matter, on the correct side, and there's nothing else to be said about it:
Batie-Smoose previously told OutKick that she was told not to speak to the media after she was terminated, accusing the school of trying to "silence people that are speaking up for their First Amendment rights and for what's right."
She added she wanted to "make sure I'm standing strong that only women should be in women's sports."
It's amazing that this is a statement that provokes objection from some quarters: "...only women should be in women's sports."
There will, yes, be a lawsuit:
See Related: Teams Boycott San Jose Women's Volleyball Squad With Transgender Player—Coach Blames 'Politics'
An Issue of Safety and Fairness: NV Gov. Backs Women's Boycott of Transgender Volleyball Players
Women's sports will be forever and irreversibly changed if this practice does not stop. Not only is this unfair practice allowed, but all who object are subject to retribution, and loss of employment; the student athletes are not only deprived of title and scholarship opportunities but are at risk of serious injury. These "transgender" women - men - have significant advantages in size, strength, speed, and endurance, and allowing them to compete with women is hideously unfair.
Direct and indirect effects of testosterone during male puberty include increase skeletal muscle mass due to larger muscle fiber cross-sectional area, especially fast, type II fibers; lower percentage body fat; higher hemoglobin concentration and mass; larger ventricular mass (heart) and cardiac volumes; larger airways and lungs; greater body height; and longer limbs.
Adult males are stronger, more powerful, and faster than females of similar age and training status. The sex difference in athletic performance where endurance or muscular power is required is roughly 10-30% depending on the event.
Fortunately, the tide seems to be turning. More people are starting to object. More teams are walking away rather than playing against these horribly unfair odds. Men and women are different. These are facts, and denial of those facts is doubtless part of the electoral nuking the Democrats have just suffered. And make no mistake: We can expect the incoming Trump administration to look at Title IX with an eye toward fixing this unfair practice.
It's a hell of a place we've come to when the statement that "men and women are different" is controversial to, well, anyone. But things are finally changing; as Riley Gaines notes in the Fox News video above, the times, they are a-changing.
We will keep an eye on the events surrounding San Jose State's women's volleyball team, the employment status of their courageous associate head coach, and the lawsuit. Stay tuned - we will bring you updates as events warrant.
