Trump Administration says SJSU violated Title IX with trans-identifying volleyball player; OutKick first reported a 2024 opponent canceling its match over the controversy.
Former San Jose State University women’s volleyball player Blaire Fleming, a trans-identifying male formerly known as Brayden, last played for the Spartans during the 2024 Mountain West Conference tournament.
On Wednesday, over one year later, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) ruled that SJSU violated Title IX by allowing Fleming on the women’s team and has given the school ten days to rectify the situation.
“SJSU caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team—creating unfairness in competition, compromising safety, and denying women equal opportunities in athletics, including scholarships and playing time,” ED Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital’s Jackson Thompson.
The Education Department ruled SJSU violated Title IX by allowing Blaire Fleming on the women’s volleyball team and gave the school 10 days to respond, citing fairness, safety, and equal opportunity.
(Getty Images)
Previously, in a similar case, the Education Department found the University of Pennsylvania in violation of Title IX for allowing Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, to compete on the women’s swimming team in 2022.
Penn agreed to the resolutions put forth by the ED, which included adopting definitions for male and female consistent with biological sex; restoring stolen records and titles to female athletes; and, issuing personal apologies to each impacted female swimmer.
It remains to be seen if San Jose State plans to resolve the issue or continue to fight the federal government.
“The University is in the process of reviewing the Department’s findings and proposed resolution agreement,” SJSU said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “We remain committed to providing a safe, respectful, and inclusive educational environment for all students while complying with applicable laws and regulations.”
OutKick Leads Way in Exposing Fleming Controversy
The initial discovery of Fleming as a trans-identifying male competing in women’s NCAA Division I volleyball belongs to the independent website Reduxx, which exposed in April 2024 that SJSU tried to hide Fleming’s biological sex from teammates, coaches and opponents.
OutKick discovered in September 2024 that Southern Utah quietly canceled its match against San Jose State and Fleming. While the school didn’t expressly name Fleming as the reason for the canceled match, they didn’t deny it, either. It’s far more likely than not that the team chose not to compete against a trans-identifying male.
Shortly after, the floodgates opened. OutKick exclusively reported that Boise State, a fellow Mountain West school, forfeited its match against SJSU. In total, five schools forfeited or canceled eight matches against SJSU in 2024, including a stunning forfeit in the Mountain West Tournament by Boise State.
Add it all up, and hundreds of women (at least) were affected by Fleming’s participation on the women’s team. That’s the part that radical transgender ideologues often omit; they often like to say that the number of transgender athletes is small (though that’s up for debate), but even one trans-identifying male in girls’ or women’s sports potentially impacts hundreds or thousands of females.
Good for the Department of Education for standing up for fairness, safety and privacy in women’s sports.
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