Brooke Slusser Says SJSU Tried To Hide Transgender Volleyball Player: ‘Just Sweeping It Under The Rug’

When Brooke Slusser transferred to San Jose State from Alabama, she had no idea she'd be competing with a male athlete on her women's volleyball team. This was a well-kept secret by the SJSU athletic department.

Until it wasn't. In April, reports surfaced that Blaire Fleming, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter for the Spartans, was born a male.

Appearing on OutKick the Morning with Charly Arnolt on Monday, Slusser explained that prior to that report, players only whispered about the issue behind closed doors. Once Fleming's sex became public knowledge, though, the team held a meeting to encourage players to continue their silence.

"When that first article came out, it was quite literally just a media meeting talking about, 'Don't make comments. If media people come up to you, it's not your story to tell,'" Slusser explained. "And that was really it. It wasn't, ‘How do we feel about this? Are we okay?’ It was how to handle the media and not make it look like there's a problem, and almost just the feeling of just sweeping it under the rug, and that was really it."

Essentially, the school laid a guilt trip on the volleyball players, suggesting it was their responsibility to protect their male teammate from public scrutiny.

"So we all just kind of walked away, and a lot of people expressed this feeling of, ‘Well, what about us? Like, we have so many emotions bottled up about this whole situation. How do we handle this? How do we deal with this?’" Slusser said. 

"And so as meetings went on, it was kind of the same thing: 'Don't really comment, not your story to tell.'"

But Slusser didn't follow those orders.

Brooke Slusser Speaks Out For Fairness In Women's Sports

According to Slusser, SJSU offered the volleyball players access to a therapist who could make them feel more "comfortable" with Fleming's presence on the team. But that wasn't a solution to the problem. Rather, it was a feeble attempt to further conceal it.

So last month, Slusser joined more than a dozen other female athletes in suing the NCAA for Title IX violations for allowing male athletes to compete in women's sports and to utilize their locker rooms.

She's received mixed feedback since joining the lawsuit — some supportive and some hateful. But Slusser said she knows she's doing the right thing in speaking out about a topic that many people are afraid to discuss.

EXCLUSIVE: SJSU's Brooke Slusser Speaks Out On Fight Against NCAA: ‘Title IX Exists For A Reason’

And Slusser's courage is contagious. Since she came forward about her teammate, five opposing teams (Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada) have opted to forfeit their matches against SJSU instead of playing against the transgender athlete.

EXCLUSIVE: Nevada Players Vote To Forfeit Against SJSU, Transgender Player Despite School's Statement

These women won't be silenced — despite San Jose State's best efforts.