West
Volleyball player nearly forced to face transgender opponent cries, alleges school pressured team to compete
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.
“When the news broke, I was stunned, as many of my teammates were. This is not what we signed up for,” an emotional Liilii said.
Liilii referenced a statement the university released Oct. 13, assuring the program intends to face San Jose State despite players voting to forfeit.
“Our university had made a decision for us. They released a statement on our behalf saying we were going to play. We were not consulted, we were not given a voice and we did not agree,” Liilii said. “It hurt knowing our university was putting us in a position that could potentially hurt us. My teammates and I were very emotional, and I’m not sure, I cannot put into words how it feels to face something like this and knowing that we are all on our own.”
Nevada previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital confirming that the players had requested to forfeit the match but did not have authority to do so themselves.
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“A majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team issued a statement to the university informing it that the team had decided it was forfeiting the scheduled match with San José State University. While players are not authorized to forfeit the match, this decision is one that only the university and our department of athletics can officially make,” the statement said.
The university added that any player was free to sit the match out without consequences.
Liilii 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.”
Nevada Wolf Pack women’s volleyball players with Sam Brown and Tulsi Gabbard. (Sam Brown Campaign)
In addition to her university, Liilii also called out the Mountain West Conference and the NCAA, saying the institutions “are failing us.”
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.
Nevada freshman Kinsley Singleton said her teammates had multiple meetings in recent weeks and shared their fears of potential injury if they had to play against a transgender opponent.
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The program previously said it could not forfeit the match because it would be a violation of state law. Article I, Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution provides that “Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”
However, that constitution was revised in 2022 when Nevada voted to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to the list of protections.
Nevada state Sen. Pat Spearman, a Democrat from North Las Vegas who co-sponsored the bill to get it on the ballot, said the law has helped transgender people maintain their identity.
“As a state university, a forfeiture for reasons involving gender identity or expression could constitute per se discrimination and violate the Nevada Constitution,” the university’s statement said.
However, after the controversy got national attention, and it was announced the match was moved from Nevada to the Bay Area in California, the program finally announced an official forfeit once it became clear it wouldn’t have enough players to compete.
Nevada is the fifth team to forfeit a match against San Jose State, joining Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming and Utah State. The cancellations come with a San Jose State player involved in a lawsuit against the NCAA over being forced to compete with a transgender teammate who is still on the team.
San Jose State player Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit led by Gaines against the NCAA over its policies on gender identity. Slusser joined this lawsuit because she claims she has had to share a court, a locker room and even a room on overnight trips with teammate Blaire Fleming without having ever been told Fleming was a biological male.
Blaire Fleming, a redshirt senior at San Jose State University, plays as an outside and right-side hitter on the women’s volleyball team. (San Jose State University)
San Jose State responded to the forfeit in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Our athletes all comply with NCAA and Mountain West Conference policies, and they are eligible to play under the rules of those organizations. We will continue to take measures to prioritize the health and safety of our students while they pursue their earned opportunities to compete,” the statement said.
Nevada players, including Liilii and Sierra Bernard, wrote an op-ed for Fox News Digital Friday, praising former President Trump for his stance advocating for a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“President Trump has our back, and this election is more important than politics but about leaders who will be standing with women on and off the court, defending our right to compete safely and fairly,” the players wrote. “As proud female athletes, we will continue to fight for fairness on the court and in women’s sports. But it shouldn’t be a fight we have to take on alone.”
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BIGFORK, Mont. — Boaters on the Flathead River near Bigfork will face a temporary closure this week as crews continue work on the new Sportsman’s Bridge.
The Montana Department of Transportation and Sletten Construction will continue constructing the new bridge on Montana Highway 82 northwest of Bigfork by placing steel beams over the east side of the Flathead River. The beams will support the deck of the new bridge.
To safely complete the work, the river beneath the bridge will be temporarily closed from 7 a.m. Wednesday, July 8, to 6 p.m. Thursday, July 9.
No boat traffic will be allowed to travel under the bridge during that time.
The following was sent out by Montana Department of Transportation:
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) and Sletten Construction will continue constructing the new Sportsman’s Bridge on Montana Highway 82 (MT 82) northwest of Bigfork by placing steel beams over the east side of the Flathead River. These beams will support the deck of the new bridge.
To safely complete this work, the river beneath the bridge will be temporarily closed from 7 a.m. on Wednesday, July 8, to 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 9.
No boat traffic will be allowed to travel under the bridge during this time.
This closure area includes approximately 20 feet upstream and 300 feet downstream of the bridge and applies to all motorized and non-motorized watercraft, including kayaks, canoes, rafts, and paddleboards.
The Sportsman’s Bridge Fishing Access Site will remain open during this time for boaters traveling southbound (downstream) on the river toward Flathead Lake.
No traffic impacts are anticipated for motorists traveling on MT 82 during this work.
Nevada
U. Nevada Reno department merger will study social life via ‘intersectional, decolonial, humanistic’ lens | The College Fix
A ‘place where rigorous social research and critical, decolonial scholarship’ will occur
At the beginning of this month, the University of Nevada Reno merged its sociology department and Department of Gender, Race, and Identity to form the Department of Sociology and Cultural Analysis — dedicated to studying “social life” via “intersectional, decolonial and humanistic” methods.
According Nevada Today, the consolidation “reflects a long-recognized affinity between the two departments. Sociology and GRI share deep commitments to understanding social inequalities, the forces that produce and reproduce them, and the possibilities for transformation.”
The new department will be led by Professors Lydia Huerta (research interests include “critical communication pedagogy” and “feminist, gender and sexuality studies”) and Jared Bok (“globalization and transnationalism,” “religion, culture, organizations”) whom outgoing Dept. of Sociology Chair Marta Elliot (“prejudice, discrimination, stigma and well-being,” “sociology of mental health and illness”) said will “exceptionally well-position” the merger for the future.
The now-former Departments of Sociology and Gender, Race, and Identity taught students “to ask rigorous questions about race, gender, class, migration, health, labor, culture and power,” and the merger won’t change that, according to the report.
Huerta said the new department “will be a place where rigorous social research and critical, decolonial scholarship inform one another and where students graduate equipped to understand and change the world they inherit.”
The Department of Sociology and Cultural Analysis will offer “robust” selection of majors and minors including gender, race and identity, comparative ethnic studies, Indigenous studies, gender and queer studies, and social justice and conflict studies.
College of Liberal Arts Dean Casilde Isabelli said these programs “preserve [both former departments’] unique intellectual traditions while creating new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and student success.”
According to her faculty page, Huerta has written the journal articles “The Exigency of the Anti-Gender Agenda in Latin America: A Transnational Perspective” and “The Impacts of Anti-Genderism on Education in Brazil: Fear and Danger among Professors of Gender” among other publications.
Bok’s offerings include “Religious Exit Costs” and “The Arts in Sacred Spaces: How Religious Conservatism and Cultural Omnivorousness Influence Attitudes about Congregational Involvement in the Arts.”
MORE: U. Nevada Reno language guide warns against using ‘native Nevadan,’ offensive to indigenous people
ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE) — Organizers behind the annual Roswell UFO Festival say this past weekend’s event was a success. It was held from July 2 to July 4.
The festival was filled with unique booths, shops, shows and contests for paranormal enthusiasts. Roswell Mainstreet says they believe more than 12,000 people were in attendance, although those are preliminary numbers.
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