EXCLUSIVE: Air Force Stops Fan From Wearing 'Keep Women's Sports Female' Shirt During Match Against SJSU

OutKick obtained exclusive video footage that showed security officials at the Air Force Academy preventing a fan from wearing a shirt that said, "Keep Women's Sports Female" during a match against San Jose State and transgender player Blaire Fleming. 

The fan, John Kopecky, captured the moment when officials at Air Force told him to unzip his sweatshirt to reveal what he was wearing underneath. 

When they saw the shirt, they told him that he couldn't display it during the match. He was told the message was "political" and not allowed. 

"They've never made me unzip a hoody to get in before, so that was unusual," Kopecky told OutKick. 

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Kopecky said that they allowed him into the game, but told him if he tried to take off his sweatshirt, they would ask him to leave. He added that several people watched him throughout the game to make sure he complied. 

"I saw security pointing me out to the superintendent [and] the commandant," he said. "I could kind of see out of the corner of my eye, they were pointing at where I was sitting." 

Kopecky noted a few other changes to the usual process at Air Force home volleyball games. He said they had a banner letting fans know that they would not allow signs into the game, at all. 

This is different from the usual policy, which states that the Academy does not allow "unapproved banners/signs (no signs larger than 18" x 24")." 

In this instance, though, signs were prohibited entirely. Kopecky also noted that they had a large board with a fan code of conduct. While he noted that this might have been up in the past, it was more visible than he could ever remember. 

"They brought out a big board with all these rules about fan conduct that may have been there in the past, but I've never seen it [displayed] right at the door," he said. 

His takeaway was that the Air Force Academy clearly put special measures into place for this game. 

Air Force Academy officials prevented a fan from wearing a shirt that said, "Keep Women's Sports Female" during a match against San Jose State and transgender player Blaire Fleming.

(U.S. Air Force Photo by Ray Bahne)

OutKick reached out to Air Force to ask about Kopecky's claims. 

"Air Force Athletics takes necessary measures to provide a safe environment at all home athletic events for players, coaches, staff and fans," the school said in a statement. 

However, the school declined to answer several specific questions about the procedures for the San Jose State match. 

Here are the questions OutKick asked: 

• "Did security require that fans unzip their sweatshirts and take off jackets to reveal if they had anything underneath? If so, what, exactly, constituted a shirt that would not be allowed during this match?"
• "Were signs banned from this match? Is that different from the usual policy for home games?"
• "Was a fan prevented from displaying a shirt that read "Keep Women’s Sports Female"? If so, why was that shirt not allowed? Could the fan wear that shirt to the team’s next home game this week?"

Air Force Academy officials prevented a fan from wearing a shirt that said, "Keep Women's Sports Female" during a match against San Jose State and transgender player Blaire Fleming.

(U.S. Air Force Photo)

What's interesting about this situation, specifically, is that all of this occurred on the Air Force military base, which is, of course, property of the United States government. 

It seems odd that a government institution would restrict a person's right to wear a shirt with a "political message," given that one would assume free speech would be commonplace at this particular institution. 

In this case, though, it appears that the Air Force Academy felt that protecting the feelings of transgender San Jose State player Blaire Fleming superseded the fans' right to free speech. 

San Jose State defeated Air Force, 3-1, and Blaire Fleming led the Spartans with 10 kills in the match. 

Ultimately, San Jose State beat Air Force to move to 11-3 on the season. 

Kopecky pointed out that Fleming's athleticism looked quite a bit different from what he was used to seeing in women's volleyball. 

"Watching Blair Fleming play… the jumping ability was just drastically different," he said. "It was just like, 'wow, there's something you don't see every day at a women's volleyball match.' … [Fleming was] strikingly more athletic than normal." 

RELATED: Trans Blaire Fleming Blasts A Spike Off Opponent's Head & Now America Is Talking

One interesting note that Kopecky made was how much leadership Brooke Slussler displayed on the floor. 

Slusser has spoken out against having biological males in women's sports, but that hasn't stopped her from continuing to compete and lead her team. 

"Her leadership on the court [was] very impressive," he said. "She was very sharp…[communicating] with everybody, an impressive young lady." 

San Jose State volleyball players, including transgender Blaire Fleming, huddle during a game.

(San Jose State University Athletics)

However, it's hard to hide the obvious awkwardness between Slusser and Fleming given Slusser's stance on transgender athletes in women's sports. 

"[There was] minimal communication between the two of them," Kopecky observed. "They're right next to each other a lot of the time but even in the huddles there were no extra high-fives.

"You could tell there was some type of distance there." 

Brooke Slussler, Blaire Fleming and the San Jose State Spartans women's volleyball team continue to dominate on the court, sitting in third place in the Mountain West Conference. 

The conference tournament takes place in Las Vegas at the end of November. If the Spartans win that tournament, they would be granted an automatic bid to the NCAA Division-I Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament. 

If they don't win the conference tournament, however, it would be up to the committee to determine if they did enough to earn an at-large bid, similar to how teams are selected for the NCAA March Madness Tournament. 

In that case, it would be very interesting to see how the NCAA decides to handle this situation. 

Stay tuned.