In January, in Trans college volleyball: the season ends, the lawsuits begin, I wrote:

The college women’s/trans volleyball season has ended, but the trans wars continue. San Jose State University’s (SJSU) trans player, Blaire Fleming played his last game as a senior at the NCAA tournament. SJSU quickly lost to Colorado and was eliminated. Thus ends a season where a SJSU assistant volleyball coach, ironically female, was fired for supporting her players who opposed their trans teammate. A broadly supported lawsuit was filed, alleging among other things that Fleming conspired with other players to try to injure the most vocal player in opposition, Brooke Slusser. 

Graphic: Fox News Screenshot

They were not successful in physically harming Slusser, but that hasn’t stopped trans and their enablers from trying. Slusser is finishing her final semester from her home in Texas. Unrelenting harassment and threats have caused her, like so many others, to flee the People’s Republic of California. Unlike so many of the LGBTQ clan and their enablers, Slusser is not "feeling unsafe” merely because other people disapprove of her opinions.

"I would just be walking, and I'd have people say things to me, like I had one girl just scream ‘f--- you!’ to me," Slusser said. "I was in the elevator one time at my apartment and some girls, as they were walking out, were like ‘oh, that’s the girl, you should have slapped her when you had the chance,' so those types of things happened. 

"I literally just didn't feel safe. Anytime I left the house, I felt like people were just like staring at me, I felt like I had to watch my back whenever I was on campus." 

Graphic: X Screenshot

Despite filing a lawsuit against SJSU and the Mountain West Conference with 11 other female volleyball players, Slusser did her job, playing with the trans player on her team, Blair Fleming, the player who conspired to injure her. Then the threats began.

However, with that attention later came fear for her safety. Slusser alleges that she received multiple threats leading up to her decision to leave campus this semester.

"I had some threats coming in too, so you never know what people will do," Slusser said. "People threatened to confront me on campus, and just those types of things." 

Slusser didn’t report most threats, no doubt because she had no confidence SJSU, which had threatened players to keep quiet about Fleming and the school’s support of him, would do anything about it. She has a remarkably realistic, and constitutional, view of the threats:

"I didn't because everything that was happening, it almost became like a norm, so I can't really do anything about what people are saying to me, and as long as they aren't laying their hands on me they can say whatever they want," she said. 

The consequences of standing for women’s rights have weighed heavily on Slusser and many of her teammates:

"It was probably the most traumatizing thing I've ever gone through in my life," Slusser said. "I was so drained, and I feel like for so long, I was just running on the adrenaline of trying to get through it and I honestly would say I was kind of numb to everything for a while, and I really did lose myself. I'd like to consider myself a pretty happy person, and I wasn't that person for a while."

Slusser is not the only one from last year's team who has distanced themselves from the university in the aftermath of the scandal. Nearly every player from the 2024 squad that had remaining NCAA eligibility entered the transfer portal shortly after the season ended in December. 

President Trump’s executive order banning male participation in female sports has been ignored by California, and more recently and infamously by Maine’s Governor, who at a White House Governor’s meeting challenged Trump, telling him she’d see him in court over the issue. Trump replied he was looking forward to it and would withhold all federal funds until she complied. The NCAA has “amended” its relevant policy, but many reasonably argue it’s not sufficient.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is set to get a vote in the U.S. Senate within the next week after passing in the House of Representatives, as Republican lawmakers aim to establish a stricter national precedent to clamp down on trans inclusion in girls' and women's sports across the country. 

That’s going to require at least a few Democrats to pass. There are several in red states who understand how very unpopular their Party’s support for trans is, so it’s possible a national ban, thanks in part to women like Slusser, might become law.  It’s about time.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.