Fresno State to play San Jose State women's volleyball team amid transgender athlete claims

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno State women's volleyball team is scheduled to play San Jose State on Tuesday night.

This match comes after several other teams have forfeited their games against the Spartans due to claims of a transgender athlete on the team.

Earlier this month, one of the team's co-captains filed a lawsuit with other players and a since suspended coach.

They claim the Mountain West conference is violating equality laws included in Title IX by allowing an alleged transgender athlete to compete.

"I would argue that transgender players are not a threat to women's sports," said Dr. Kathryn Forbes.

Dr. Forbes is a Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fresno State.

She believes the lawsuit is operating on what she says is a dated interpretation of Title Nine.

"They are interpretating Title IX just around what they call the plain text so that the Title IX is just about sex, meaning anatomical differences and both the regulations and court interpretations through lawsuits don't bear that out," Dr. Forbes explained.

But many groups oppose to allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports arguing they may have an unfair physical advantage.

The Mountain West Conference sent Action News a statement, writing that it: 'prioritizes the best interests of our student-athletes and takes great care to adhere to NCAA and MW policies.'

"While we are unable to comment on the pending litigation of this particular situation, we take seriously all concerns of student-athlete welfare and fairness," the statement continued.

Fresno State confirmed Monday night that the match will go on as planned.

The outcome could impact the Bulldogs seed as they look to defend their conference tournament title next week.

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