Virtue-Signaling Media Refusing To Name Trans Volleyball Player Blaire Fleming Is Wrong | Dan Zaksheske

If you didn't already know, San Jose State has a transgender volleyball player named Blaire Fleming. 

Fleming, born male, competes on the women's volleyball team for the Spartans. 

And, you wouldn't know Fleming's name if you only consumed legacy media. That's because none of them will "out" Fleming as per their editorial policy. 

USA Today's Dan Wolken, for example, wrote about SJSU volleyball this week. Here's what he had to say: 

"The player, whom USA TODAY Sports will not name because neither she nor the school has commented on or confirmed her gender identity, remains on San Jose State’s team." 

This language is nearly universal across the media landscape. CNN, NBC, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many others have written stories about San Jose State volleyball and the controversy around Blaire Fleming.

But none of them used Fleming's name. Not once. 

That's despite SJSU teammate Brooke Slusser stating that Fleming is transgender. OutKick has also verified that Fleming was born male. 

San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser (right) has confirmed that teammate Blaire Fleming (left) is transgender.

(SJSU Athletics)

Plus, if Fleming truly weren't a biological male, wouldn't Fleming and/or San Jose State have just said that by now? 

But according to the legacy media, the only person who can "out" Blaire Fleming is Blaire Fleming, regardless of any other facts. 

Which, to be perfectly frank, I wouldn't have a problem with hiding the "gender identity" if Fleming was living a private life and not affecting anyone else. 

What Fleming does in the privacy of Fleming's own home is Fleming's business. 

But it became the public's business, but more specifically the women's college volleyball community's business, when Fleming decided to participate in women's athletics despite being born male. 

Now, these legacy media companies know that Fleming's name is out there. 

Thanks to outlets like OutKick and Fox, two of the very few media organizations willing to tell the whole truth, people understand that there is a biological male competing in Division I women's college volleyball. 

That's part of what makes the decision of the outlets to pretend that they're "protecting" Fleming so insidious. 

They know the truth is out there, so they feel like they can take this moral high ground. 

But here's the issue: all they're doing is encouraging other biological males to hide their true sex to compete in women's sports, and use women's private spaces. 

Which makes you wonder: is that what the media really wants? If not, they have a funny way of showing it. 

Legacy media refuses to name San Jose State transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming and they're dead-wrong for that approach. 

(San Jose State Athletics)

You see, Fleming lost the right to "privacy" – as it relates to sex and "gender identity" – when Fleming decided to accept a spot on a college volleyball team that was previously reserved for a woman. 

At that point, it was incumbent upon Fleming, San Jose State, the Mountain West and the NCAA to tell everyone that a male was playing on that volleyball team.

As we've seen, many women are not comfortable and do not feel safe playing against a transgender opponent. 

Five schools have canceled matches rather than face Fleming on the court. 

While the legacy media argues that Fleming deserves the right to hide the player's biological sex, I argue that the women competing against – and on the same team with – a transgender player have the right to know if there's a biological male on the court and in the locker room. 

It's a bizarre shift for the legacy media, which leans heavily left-wing and has told us over and over again the importance of women's rights. 

They were right about that. But why did they suddenly forget their own platform? 

There was the "Me Too" movement aimed at punishing men who sexual harass and/or abuse women, specifically in the workplace.

When it comes to issues like abortion, phrases like "women's health" and "reproductive rights" are constantly pushed to the forefront.

Yet, when a man decides he wants to be a woman and competes against other women, silence. 

Is that not the ultimate form of the "patriarchy" that our society, and specifically the media, claims to want to tear down? 

Putting the feelings and needs of a man who wants to be a woman over actual women? 

I understand that this is a difficult time in the life of Blaire Fleming, who is still a young person. 

It's not wrong to have empathy for Fleming. And I do.  

But it is wrong to let that empathy get to the point that we completely ignore the hundreds of women negatively impacted by Fleming and discount their feelings entirely.