Symbol of Injustice and the culture wars: Volleyball trans athlete and her teammates are caught in the middle

sjsu-e1731163351271

Blaire Fleming, a senior, was a starter for the San Jose State University Spartans. For most of her college career, she had been a good but unremarkable, and unremarked-upon, player.

Then, suddenly, she was much more than that. A few months before Fleming’s senior season, Reduxx, a “pro-woman, pro-child-safeguarding” online magazine, published an article claiming that Fleming was “a feminine male” — in other words, that she was a transgender woman.

Mis- and disinformation are distorting science and public policy. Subscribe to our Daily and Weekly Digests for incisive coverage of ‘disruptive’ innovations in AI, agricultural biotechnology, food, chemicals, nuclear energy, vaccines, and other disruptive innovations.
[A]fter Reduxx outed her, what was once unspoken became loudly debated — and Fleming, in her fourth and final season, went from being a mostly unknown college volleyball player to an unwilling combatant in the culture war.

The controversy became intensely personal when Brooke Slusser — San Jose State’s co-captain and Fleming’s close friend and roommate — joined a class-action lawsuit by a group of female athletes against the N.C.A.A., arguing that the organization’s transgender-participation policy discriminated against women and therefore violated Title IX [.]

Related Articles

Infographic: Global regulatory and health research agencies on whether glyphosate causes cancer

Infographic: Global regulatory and health research agencies on whether glyphosate causes cancer

Does glyphosate—the world's most heavily-used herbicide—pose serious harm to humans? Is it carcinogenic? Those issues are of both legal and ...

Most Popular

ChatGPT-Image-Sep-17-2026-12_28_43-PM
Vitamin D, omega-3 fish oil and glucosamine supplements could cause brain damage 
ChatGPT-Image-Mar-10-2026-01_39_01-PM
Viewpoint—“Miracle molecule” debunked: Why acemannan supplements don’t work
ChatGPT-Image-Sep-17-2026-10_17_15-AM
Viewpoint: Why are the less intelligent more likely to be conservative—and smarter people more socially liberal?
Screenshot-2026-08-12-at-11.31.46-AM
AI is helping develop new vaccines
Screenshot-2026-09-10-at-12.20.19-PM
'Jet fuel didn't melt the steel': 9/11 conspiracy theories debunked
Screenshot-2026-09-17-at-10.24.54-AM
Viewpoint: Dubious environmental fears: Why the AI buildout is critical to America’s ecological future
Screenshot 2026-09-11 at 12.39
Child-monitoring apps: When the cure is worse than the harm—and how the technology could be tweaked
Screenshot-2026-09-16-at-12.07.47-PM
The heated debate over trans athletes in the WNBA
ChatGPT-Image-Sep-9-2026-02_48_24-PM
Viewpoint: Trump-RFK Jr. report on “Gender Ideology & Left-wing Ideology’ targets LGBTQ community—and science
ChatGPT-Image-Sep-15-2026-12_15_00-PM
Viewpoint: Women, depression and empathy: Explaining the gender gap in views about child-murderer Lindsay Clancy
glp menu logo outlined

Get news on human & agricultural genetics and biotechnology delivered to your inbox.