University of Wyoming has become easy target for far right’s anti-transgender agenda

Santi Murillo, the University of Wyoming’s first transgender athlete, doesn’t believe her alma mater’s controversial decision to forfeit a women’s volleyball match against a San Jose State team with a trans player has anything to do with safety.

“It’s not about athletics. It’s not about protecting women from unfair competition,” Murillo, a former UW cheerleader, told me in an interview. “It’s an attack on trans people. That is what it is.”

It’s also a prime example of extremist politicians who pressured UW and could care less about the wishes of the student athletes who decided to play the game before the university called it off. These lawmakers won’t waste any opportunity to throw our Equality State values and reputation out the window to exploit a national controversy that affects very few people here for what they hope is a huge political gain. They also ignored their own supposed political values: They wanted to make the decision on whether to play rather than leaving it up to the team itself.

Murillo was a member of UW’s cheerleading squad from 2017-19. She said her experience was nothing like what’s happening to Blaire Fleming, the San Jose State volleyball player demonized by UW, Utah State, Boise State and Southern Utah University. Each forfeited and took the loss rather than compete on the same court.

“Everyone at the university and athletic department was so supportive of me, and made sure that I was going to be safe and protected,” Murillo recalled. “It’s heartbreaking to me that UW supported their trans athlete, but now they can’t do it for someone else.”

It was incredibly easy for far-right lawmakers to force UW administrators to instantly bow to political pressure. No subtle behind-the-scenes lobbying was needed, just a well-publicized letter from a few Republican hard-liners who made it clear they will cut UW’s budget if officials don’t get on board with the Legislature’s anti-transgender agenda.

It’s a totally manufactured crisis aimed at proving the House Freedom Caucus and its Senate allies can steamroll any entity in the state, no matter how large or powerful. 

UW made itself an easy target when it shut down its 30-year-old Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with barely a whimper earlier this year. 

After far-right legislators successfully cut funds for DEI programming, UW President Ed Seidel’s initial reaction suggested the university might seek private funds to keep the DEI office open. But that’s the last time anyone heard a peep about salvaging it. When Seidel recommended the UW Board of Trustees close the office — which it did — he stressed that the Legislature’s $1.7 million cut to its block grant “put pressure on the university” to follow its intent.

It certainly did. And that success was used as leverage by Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle), who drafted a letter demanding that the San Jose State contest be forfeited. It was signed by about 15 to 20 legislators and sent to Seidel and UW Athletic Director Tom Burman.

“The Legislature has been very clear that the University of Wyoming, being a publicly funded land grant institution, should not participate in the extremist agenda of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or propagate the lie that biological sex can be changed,” Steinmetz wrote. “We all know it cannot.”

I can’t let Steinmetz’s declaration go unchallenged, because she’s feeding university officials and the public false information. The senator and anyone confused by her assertions should peruse the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s lengthy list of terminology associated with sexual and gender identities for a better understanding of a complex issue.

Public health agencies, doctors and biologists say science is clear: Gender identity goes beyond male and female. Gender is not genitalia — it derives its meaning from the society in which one lives. 

Steinmetz bragged about the far right’s gains in the Republican primary, which put the House Freedom Caucus and like-minded senators on the brink of controlling both chambers. She claimed voters categorically rejected incumbents and candidates who supported or failed to stop “the ‘woke’ agenda.”

“We assure you, the majority of our constituents do not want the integrity of women’s athletics to be decimated by the participation of males who overall have superior physical strength and abilities to women,” she wrote.

Gov. Mark Gordon, who fretted over the Legislature’s 2023 ban on trans girls competing in high school sports, which he said “paid little attention to the fundamental principles of equality,” has lost what little moral courage he once had. 

He didn’t like the flawed high school sports bill, but allowed it to become law without his signature. But last week, the governor had no such qualms about UW’s blatantly discriminatory decision not to face a volleyball team with a trans player. “It is important we stand for integrity and fairness in female athletics,” Gordon said in a statement.

Murillo, who is 5-foot-5 and weighs 110 pounds, stressed not all trans women athletes are built the same or automatically dominate cisgender opponents. Judging by readers’ online comments on news articles about UW’s forfeit, her view is not shared by many Wyomingites.

Sara Burlingame, a former state legislator and executive director of Wyoming Equality, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, explained to me her organization doesn’t support transgender people playing sports “without some kind of metric or accountability to make sure there isn’t some kind of dominance.”

But Fleming, who has been on the San Jose State team for the past four years, has met all of the NCAA’s strict testing standards for trans athletes. “She jumped through all of these hoops and did what was asked of her,” Burlingame said. “What you have left are people [criticizing her] who just don’t want her to exist.”

Burlingame said the far right’s pressure on UW is “a devastating precedent for the university and its independence.” She’s absolutely right.

“The Freedom Caucus and the alt-right know what they’re doing when they call people groomers and pedophiles and ramp up the rhetoric against people who support transgender people living their lives with dignity and equality,” added Burlingame, whose organization has been in the group’s crosshairs.

For 45 years, Wyoming rejected passing anti-LGBTQ bills that even some blue states approved. In the past two years bills like the sports ban for trans girls and a ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors became law, likely due to a libertarian “live and let live” philosophy that prevailed in the past and should be revived. As Burlingame puts it, taking away people’s rights “is not a Wyoming value.”

I’m concerned about the impact this issue will have on current and future UW athletes. The women’s volleyball team played against Fleming and her San Jose State teammates twice in 2022 without controversy. UW lost both matches, but it doesn’t mean the team couldn’t win a rematch. Colorado State University decided to play SJS last week and won all three sets.

Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) told WyoFile that UW’s teams should make their own choices without the Freedom Caucus telling them what to do. Both UW and SJS were effectively punished by politicians who robbed them of an opportunity they cannot replace.

Here’s another reason to be outraged by legislators’ interference in UW athletics: Neither UW or the other three schools even bothered to cite a reason for their actions.

Any university with a grievance it considers important enough to protest but won’t spell out, deserves to lose all credibility. Acknowledging legislative intent is fine, but it’s no excuse for cowering in fear when politicians make unreasonable demands that hurt the institution. 

I shudder to think about UW’s response whenever the Freedom Caucus next decides to flex its muscles to limit academic freedom.