Brooke Slusser took a stand for women in college sports. Now she’s the victim of vicious online attacks.
In a recent interview with Fox News, the former San Jose State Volleyball player expressed shock at the hate and vitriol coming out now for simply saying she was not comfortable sharing a bed with a man as a college athlete. The attacks come years after Slusser joined the lawsuit against the NCAA, where she publicly spoke about her experience playing alongside Blaire Fleming, a biological male on the SJSU women’s volleyball team.
“I honestly think what struck the biggest nerve is this is really the first time I’ve like sat and talked about just kind of like a day to day point of view, like, yes, we were good friends, like we’d share very like intimate details about each of our lives, like that’s a normal roommate tendencies do in a girl’s apartment,” Slusser told The Daily Wire.
Credit: Brooke Slusser
Since the interview earlier this week, Slusser has been called a “b*tch” and a “transphobe right-wing grifter” among other attacks for simply speaking the truth.
“Someone texted me and was like, ‘I love you so much, I hope you’re doing ok,’ and that usually means that’s usually how I find out something’s going on about me on the internet,” Slusser said of the attacks.
Slusser believed her coaches, support staff, and San Jose State admin when they told her Blaire was a girl. Slusser shared beds with the biological man on team trips and lived together for two seasons. Slusser said she was blindsided by the news that she had been living with a man, even though, in hindsight, she said things seemed off.
“His doors were always locked, that’s what I remember, because like I said, we were all very good friends, and so it’s very normal for girls just to like barge into each other’s rooms unannounced,” Slusser said. “We always had to knock, and I just thought that was weird, but I was like, if a person likes their privacy, I’m not gonna be the one to push a button.”
Slusser refuses to focus on the hate. Instead, she’s driven to ensure other girls don’t live through the experience of playing and living with a man disguised as a woman, which Slusser described as “hell.” Slusser said her coach, Todd Kress, never told Slusser her roommate was a man, and once news broke about Fleming’s biology, Kress encouraged his team to stay quiet.
“They gaslit us so much, and the fact that like, if we spoke on this at all, even with like close family and friends, our scholarship would be in jeopardy,” Slusser said.
In January, the Office of Civil Rights found San Jose State violated Title IX because of its handling of the trans-identifying volleyball player. The Trump admin said that if the university complied with a list of conditions, the university wouldn’t be punished. Instead of complying, like Penn did last year, SJSU and the California State University system decided to sue the federal government.
SJSU President Dr.Cynthia Teniente-Matson released this statement on March 6 regarding the lawsuit:
“This is not a step we take lightly. However, we have a responsibility to defend the integrity of our institution and the rule of law, while ensuring that every member of our community is treated fairly and in accordance with the law. Our position is simple: We have followed the law and cannot be punished for doing so. OCR has faulted us for following decisions from federal courts that bound SJSU; OCR has no authority to do that. We are asking the court to set aside OCR’s Letter of Findings and Proposed Resolution Agreement and prevent the Department of Education from terminating, freezing, or refusing to grant SJSU’s federal funding.”
Slusser called her institution’s decision “blood-boiling.”
“It’s mostly SJSU that needs to be held accountable,” Slusser said. “I achieved the dream of playing collegiate sports, and the last year I had was completely ruined. You can’t get that back.”
During Slusser’s senior season in 2024, eight of San Jose State’s wins came from forfeits because other collegiate programs refused to play against a male. In the Mountain West Conference alone, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State, and Nevada forfeited seven matches against SJSU. Slusser thought the nationwide pushback would address the issue, but she was proved wrong.
“I was still trusting of Todd, my head coach, and I asked what happens if we just removed this one person and played as women, and he just cussed me out. I was like, oh, ok, that’s how we feel about this.”
The 23-year-old is fighting alongside Riley Gaines as the two are part of a lawsuit against the NCAA. Slusser said it’s progressing well despite both the NCAA and Mountain West conference attempts to appeal.
The slurs thrown Slusser’s way for speaking up thankfully don’t get her down. Even if they did, she said she would never stop standing up for women.
“If I passed this up and had kids in sports later on and saw them going through what I did when I knew I could change it and didn’t, I would literally kick myself.”
“I just think people need to know you can stand up and nothing is gonna happen to you.”
