USAV’s new rule pretends to protect women, but it still undermines fair play

Volleyball season is upon us again. Last year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) volleyball season was over politicized like never before, with NCAA and USA Volleyball (USAV) allowing a male athlete to dominate the Mountain West Conference on a Division One women’s team. As a former USAV player myself, the disrespect and disregard for female athletes felt all too familiar. Throughout my athletic career and in my work in policy beyond that, I have come to know their morals intimately, and that is why I was not at all surprised when their new “gender policy” was a complete head fake, and possibly even more disrespectful than before.   

Sport governing bodies took a hard blow in February after their failures to protect female athletes from discrimination required presidential intervention. President Donald Trump ordered the secretary of state to see that the Olympic governing bodies ensure that eligibility for women’s sports is determined according to sex, not “gender identity.”

After the USOPC clarified USAV, as a national governing body (NGB), is required to align with President Trump’s executive order, USAV released their new gender competition policy. It says, “USAV athlete members are expected to participate or compete in all USAV sanctioned events or activities as a member of the gender assigned at the time of birth on their birth certificate.”

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At first glance, it may appear they finally did the right thing. But the policy not only conflicts with the executive order (because you can alter your birth certificate in most states), but it violates the purpose of the entire effort. 

USA Volleyball does not even acknowledge that sex exists, opting for the Orwellian “sex assigned at birth” narrative. 

Their “gender competition policy” treats a foundational component of humanity as if it is as arbitrary as your favorite color. To them, “gender” is just an F or M blindly assigned on a document. The policy even says athletes can “change their Profile gender at any time,” though that will not necessarily change their eligibility status. Additionally, their website is still plastered with anti-woman propaganda including a documentary trailer featuring a young child who altered their birth certificate (the very loophole we are discussing in the new USAV policy), and links to left-wing political advocacy groups like GLAAD, The Trevor Project, and Gender Spectrum.

Sure, there will likely be fewer men competing in women’s volleyball because of their new policy. That is surely a win. But it is hard to see this as a pro-woman shift inside USAV. In fact, it is quite the opposite. USAV is digging their heels in the ground. They are dead set on doing the least they are legally required for their female athletes. (Who, by the way, are consistently shattering attendance and viewership records and bringing women’s athletics to new heights.)

Their anti-woman agenda is not new. In fact, I had to play against a male athlete while playing under USA Volleyball in high school. It was during the heat of my recruiting process, so the embarrassing display of contrast between our skill could have knocked me out of my scholarship entirely. The physical dangers here are obvious, too, as he was playing on a net seven inches shorter than the men’s net, with his dominant physical advantages.  

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From that day on, I began petitioning for reform in women’s sports that safeguards sex-based protections. It has been over six years, and it is shameful both that women have been ignored, and that it required the presidential pen to get any kind of response. 

Thanks to President Trump, we have a clear path forward. In his first day in office, he acknowledged “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.” He also asserted, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”

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This is the core of the modern women’s rights movement. This is what USAV is missing. As long as they deny the reality of sex, they will deny us the dignity we deserve.

Unfortunately for them, female athletes like me are in for the long haul. We will continue to appeal until we see our governing bodies truly championing female athletes. We deserve as much. Whether that’s passing Congressman Greg Steube’s “Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act,” an overhaul of USA Volleyball’s woke leadership, or revoking their USOPC membership altogether, we will not stop fighting until fairness and women’s dignity are restored for female sports at every level.