Inside Gavin Newsom’s transgender volleyball crisis

Fox News | September 17, 2025
Original article can be viewed HERE
Photo Credit: Advocates for Faith & Freedom

California high school senior Hadeel Hazameh believes she was brainwashed.

For the previous three school years, she had to watch biological male athletes finish ahead of her in at least seven track and field events. But things got even harder during the volleyball season, when she had to share a locker room with a biological male transgender teammate.

She put her inner feelings and religious duties aside to tolerate it.

“I shouldn’t have had to be scared to change in the women’s locker room. I’m not allowed to show my hair or my body to biological males, and I shouldn’t have had to deal with that. I should have had those privacy rights since the second I walked into the locker room since my freshman year,” Hazameh, a practicing Muslim, told Fox News Digital.

“I wish they would just understand there’s some things I just can not do because of my religious faith… there’s stuff I just can’t do and I wish I had more privacy protecting those rights.”

Now, she’s taking action.

Hazameh, in her final season, has stepped away from her team at Jurupa Valley High School and joined a lawsuit with her family against the Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD), the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and California Department of Education (CDE).

But even though he is not listed as a defendant on the lawsuit, Hazameh is also placing blame on the shoulders of Governor Gavin Newsom for what she has had to endure in high school.

Newsom has, on multiple occasions now, said he believes males competing in girls’ sports is unfair. Yet, under his leadership, nothing has been done to prevent it.

“If our governor himself says that it’s unfair, then he’s the one who should act on it… he should be the one to stand up, it shouldn’t have to be girls like me,” Hazameh said. “What are you here to do?”

Hazameh’s teammate Alyssa McPherson, a practicing Catholic who has also argued her religious liberties have been infringed upon, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit as well.

“I’ve always known that it wasn’t quite right… it didn’t feel right,” McPherson said, later adding that she believes the issue will affect the decisions of young voters in the state’s gubernatorial election next year.

“I definitely think this will be a big factor that people will consider.”

Maribel Munoz is the mother of McPherson and former Jurupa Valley volleyball player Madison McPherson, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, being represented by Advocates for Faith & Freedom. Munoz is one of many Southern California parents who has been trying to confront the issue at her child’s school for years. But current California policy has put up a stonewall.

“They’re completely disregarding our girls,” Munoz told Fox News Digital of the state government. “Having a boy on the team just makes it so difficult… our government, they’re not supporting our kids.”

When Munoz tried to make complaints directly to the school, she says she was told the issue was “above their pay grade.”

“Last year I complained about many issues to athletic administrators, vice principal, principal and even our superintendent. If I wasn’t ignored, I was told it was above their pay grade,” Munoz said.

So far, four schools have already been confirmed to have forfeited to Jurupa Valley this season amid controversy involving the trans athlete. The first school that publicly announced it would do so was Riverside Poly High School back in August.

Fred Brayton, the father of a Riverside Polly player, told Fox News Digital that he also blames Newsom for years of devotion by young female athletes going to waste.

“Girls devote years of hard work to earn opportunities in athletics, and California’s policies under Governor Newsom have created situations where those opportunities are being put at risk. If sports are divided by sex to protect fairness, why are we treating gender identity as the deciding factor?” Brayton said.

“By defining participation based solely on gender identity, the state has chosen inclusion for a few at the expense of fairness for many. Protecting the intent of Title IX and the rights of biological girls is not about exclusion — it’s about ensuring that fairness, safety, and opportunity remain at the heart of athletics.”

The JUSD has directly encouraged critics to take up the issue with government officials and lawmakers, in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“School districts do not write laws for the state of California, nor do they have the power to ignore them or change them. However, as primarily state-funded agencies, they are required to follow them. As these issues play out in our courts and the media, any advocacy on these matters should be directed at state and federal officials elected to make laws and policies that affect public education,” the statement read.

California’s trans volleyball player issue does not end at the high school level

Santa Rosa Junior College was thrust into its own controversy involving a transgender player on its women’s volleyball team when three players filed a Title IX complaint about it in the first week of September.

Santa Rosa sophomore Madison Shaw told Fox News Digital that the trans player allegedly caused a concussion to a female athlete with a spike to the head. Fellow Santa Rosa women’s player Gracie Shaw says she herself was also hit in the head with one of the trans athlete’s spikes.

The issue of trans athletes in women’s volleyball has prompted unique scrutiny due to the potential for head injuries. The awareness for this grew after former North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered permanent brain damage after being spiked in the head by a trans opponent in 2022.

Madison Shaw is also asking why Newsom hasn’t done anything to stop this.

“Gavin Newsom already said this is unfair. But we’re not going to do anything about it? For him to acknowledge that this is unfair, really means that there should be change. We should uphold our Title IX rights,” Madison Shaw said.

Like Jurupa Valley, Santa Rosa Junior College has deferred blame for the situation to the California laws they have to follow.

“The District complies with California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) regulations, which govern student eligibility and participation in our athletic programs,” read a statement provided to Fox News Digital by a school spokesperson. The school has not responded to Madison and Gracie Shaw’s allegations that the trans athlete spiked the ball into female players’ heads and caused a concussion to one of them.

The Trump administration is slowly cracking down

California has faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice for letting males in girls’ sports since July.

On top of that, one of the state’s public universities, San Jose State, is under a Title IX investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for a scandal involving a transgender player that erupted last fall.

SJSU receives the majority of its operating budget from state appropriation, with state funding accounting for approximately 52% of its total budget, per the university.

Former SJSU player Blaire Fleming, a biological male, played for the university for three seasons. A lawsuit led by former co-captain Brooke Slusser alleges the university withheld Fleming’s birth sex from her and other teammates, and that Fleming conspired with an opponent to have Slusser spiked in the face during a match, after Slusser brought public attention to the situation.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon previously told Fox News Digital the investigation into SJSU “will continue” in an interview in early July. Then in early August, DOJ and the White House sent further warnings after Fox News Digital reported that a conference investigation into Fleming’s allegations of conspiring to have Slusser harmed was carried out by the same law firm that is defending the Mountain West against Slusser’s lawsuit, which included those same allegations.

Former college volleyball player opens up about how alleged 'attack' plot put her 'in harm's way'

Slusser fled the campus, and the entire state, back in February. She has since started a new life in North Carolina. Slusser recently told Fox News Digital she is now working as a girls’ junior varsity volleyball coach at a North Carolina high school, and as a coach at a local youth club.

And from a distance, Slusser is also serving as an inspiration for many of the young women volleyball players in California who are speaking out against the state’s current practices.

Jurupa Valley’s Hazameh and McPherson, and Santa Rosa’s Madison and Gracie Shaw, were all sharing their courts and locker rooms with biological males back in fall 2024, all while the scandal at SJSU gradually escalated and gained national attention. They all paid attention to the situation unfolding at San Jose at the time.

And this fall, they all cite Slusser as an inspiration for their recent decisions to stand up to their own teams and coaches.

“She was one of the factors,” Hazameh said of Slusser.

Madison Shaw added, “When Blaire was hitting a ball, Brooke was saying how much harder and how much force is behind that ball… I could say the same from experience watching our male athlete on our team spike the ball.”

Slusser said she advises those young women to “keep to their faith,” as they challenge their schools and state officials on the issue.

“Those are people’s basic morals. Those are the things that people live by, and I think people trying to say that we’re not allowed to speak up about our beliefs and what we believe in and our faith is so wrong,” Slusser said. “Just know that your steps are firm, and I think it’s very important that the adults that are coaching these young ladies know that.”

SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya takes questions on transgender volleyball controversy, abruptly ends interview

As someone who went to college in California for nearly two years, Slusser believes Newsom should shoulder “all” the blame for trans athlete inclusion affecting girls’ and women’s volleyball teams.

“He should have to shoulder all of it,” Slusser said of Newsom. “He could change it if he wanted to and he hasn’t.”

Slusser said she has no plans to step foot back in the state of California until there are changes within the state.

“I’m so traumatized from my time in California, I just don’t have a need or a want to ever go back… but honestly until there’s some changes made to the state of California I don’t see a reason why anyone would want to be there.”

Newsom’s response

Newsom’s office provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to the complaints by athletes and parents, suggesting the responsibility falls on the CIF, CDE and state legislature, but not on him.

“CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority. CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not,” the statement read.

The CIF has not responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for response.

A CDE spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The California Department of Education cannot comment on this matter, as we cannot comment on pending litigation.”

On April 1, the California state legislature blocked two bills that would reverse the current law which allows males in girls’ sports.

Every Democrat voted against it, with Assembly member Rick Chavez Zbur arguing that one of the bills “is really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. We are moving towards autocracy in this country. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted, barred from public life.”

Zbur said this while in the presence of a descendant of a holocaust survivor, who had to excuse herself from the chamber, according to GOP Assembly member Kate Sanchez.

“She stood up and left because she was just so disgusted with the comparison,” Sanchez told Fox News Digital.

Newsom made no public statement at the time encouraging any of his fellow Democrats to support the bill. At that point, Newsom had already made his first public statements disputing the “fairness” of trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, in the first episode of his podcast after he was pressed on the issue by the late Charlie Kirk.

Fox News Digital asked Newsom’s office if the governor would condemn Zbur’s statement, but that inquiry has not been responded to.

'The Five' analyzes Newsom's 'sudden shift' on transgender athletes in women's sports

Newsom’s office provided a transcript of an apparent exchange between him and a reporter on April 2, the day after the bills were blocked, in which the governor said he “didn’t pay any attention” to the bills. He added that he was preoccupied with Los Angeles wildfire recovery.

“Well, I didn’t pay any attention to the committee yesterday. I was, literally, spent most of the day talking about LA fire recovery with our teams. And progress is being made there, by the way, but we’re starting to run up into some of those ‘abundance’ conversations around permitting that’s already starting to take shape, where most of my focus was yesterday,” Newsom said when asked about the failed vote and the general issue of males in girls’ sports.

Then in July, Newsom spoke about the issue in an interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” saying he has been “amazingly frustrated by it” and that he regularly encounters parents who are angry about the state’s policies at his children’s soccer games.

“Every parent coming up says, ‘It’s so unfair.’ Like ‘Whoa,’ like everywhere I went, progressively-minded people, not bigots, that are champions of trans policy like I am, but didn’t like the sports. They were like ‘come on man, you got to figure this out,’” Newsom said.

Newsom added that his allies in the LGBTQ caucus were “furious” with him after he made his initial comments in March while speaking to Kirk, and even recalled an alleged conversation with President Donald Trump about it.

“Trump is having the time of his life, and I assure you he is because we’ve had conversations on this topic, he says ‘you got abortion, I got this.’ He told me that, on my mother’s grave,” Newsom said.

“And now he’s suing and threatening us, and they’re just, and you know, I’m the poster child,” Newsom added. “But I do think we have to address that issue.”

Inside Gavin Newsom’s transgender volleyball crisis

Inside Gavin Newsom’s transgender volleyball crisis

California’s trans volleyball player issue does not end at the high school level

The Trump administration is slowly cracking down

Newsom’s response

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