Volleyball game at FLC draws protestors

Folsom Lake College's women's volleyball match against Santa Rosa Junior College on Wednesday night featured some protestors out in front of the gymnasium as well as inside after the match started. A small group of protestors were there to protest Santa Rosa's volleyball team, which features a transgender athlete, as well as to support three team members who have filed a Title 9 complaint against the school. Earlier last month, Santa Rosa played a volleyball match at Sierra College that also featured a protest organized by Beth Bourne, a Davis woman who is a women's sports activist and who also helped organized the protest Wednesday night. "My son has played high school and club volleyball for Northern California Volleyball Club out of Rocklin so I've been attending boys' volleyball games in Folsom and throughout California for the last few years," Bourne said. "I've also watched girls' and women's volleyball games so I know the physical advantage male athletes have in volleyball." Joining Bourne in protest was Meg Madden, a Folsom resident who represents the organization CAUSE, which is an acronym for Californians United for Sex-Based Evidence in Policy and Law. "I'm protesting tonight because permitting a male to play on any women's sports team is unfair and unsafe," said Madden. "This negatively impacts not only every woman on the team, but every woman in the league, coaches, and families of the women athletes. "Sex is real, binary and immutable. This fact should be reflected in policy and law wherever relevant, as it certainly is in sports. "I object to the policies and laws that make it possible for any man to be on a woman's team, and protest in order to raise awareness of this issue. "I also want to support the brave young women from Santa Rosa Junior College, who stood up for their rights and the rights for all women and girls and were penalized as a result." Another man, Joel Cooper, joined in the protest and was there to support women's sports. "I fully support women and men in their athletic endeavors," Cooper said. "That being said when a man joins a team as a woman it gives an advantage that is unacceptable and not something I can get behind. It's no secret—men have a massive athletic advantage— and what we saw tonight on behalf of the Santa Rosa JC volleyball team was no exception. He had male attributes that can't be reversed by testosterone suppression or any body mutilation. Tonight we saw a blatant violation of Title IX and girls were put through something that they should be protected from. Men have their own leagues and woman have their own leagues. Keep it that way. No delusion will ever change that fact. Tonight we fought to protect woman's sports and will continue to do so until all athletes play in a league for their own sex." Madden said the protest went well and that at the end of the match, won the Santa Rosa, some people thanked them for being there.