San José State students share their reactions to Associated Students' inability to pass a resolution that would support the trans community and trans athletes in women’s sports on campus.
Mayela Sanchez, a fourth-year anthropology master’s student, sat in the last row of the gallery before speaking in front of SJSU’s A.S. Board of Directors last Wednesday afternoon.
Sanchez said she saw the meeting as an opportunity to take action and to support the trans community on campus.
“I did see that this is something that the school can do and stand in solidarity … at least to put one foot in the door and (push) against that oppression,” Sanchez said.
On Wednesday, the A.S. Board of Directors failed to collect enough votes to pass a resolution to support the trans community and trans student athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Eight of the directors needed to vote in favor of passing the resolution for it to pass, but only five voted in support while two directors voted to oppose and three chose to abstain or withhold their vote.
The directors who chose to support the vote included President Ariana Lacson, Director of Legislative Affairs Katelyn Gambarin, Director of Business Affairs Rhea Ramalingam, Director of Communications Geoffrey Agustin and Teairra Brown, the director of Student Resource Affairs.
The directors who chose to vote against passing the resolution were Controller Riya Dhami and Rishika Joshi, the director of Sustainability Affairs.
The three directors who withheld their vote were Director of Academic Affairs Sehtej Khehra, Director of Internal Affairs Anushka Joshi and Srishti Sinha, the director of Intercultural Affairs.
Sahithya Swaminathan, the director of Co-Curricular Affairs, was absent from the meeting.
Sanchez said she wasn’t surprised to see there weren’t enough votes to accomplish this goal, but she was still hoping to see the resolution pass.
Around 1.3 million adults identify as transgender in the U.S., according to a report from UCLA. Around 300,000 youth ages 13 to 17 also identify as transgender..
Nearly one in five people who identify as transgender are between the ages of 13 and 17, and around 38.5% or around 515,200 of American adults identify as transgender women, according to the same report.
Jordan Robinson, a third-year aerospace engineering student and event coordinator for Turning Point USA’s SJSU chapter, did not attend the meeting on Wednesday but said he is happy to hear that A.S. was unable to pass the resolution.
Turning Point USA is a political organization that aims to build a conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses around the U.S., according to its website. The organization currently has 3,500 campuses around the nation.
“I am a firm believer that women – those with gametes – should have their own spaces both in public and in sports and having biological men in women’s sports goes against this,” Robinson said.
Gametes are reproductive cells, like sperm or eggs, containing chromosomes or half the genetic material to form an embryo, according to a webpage from Britannica.
Approximately 1 for every 650 male babies are born with Klinefelter syndrome, a condition a male infant is born with two or more X chromosomes and one Y chromosome, according to Feb. 20 article from Science News. These infants grow up unable to produce sperm.
Robinson also said that the board's inability to pass the resolution demonstrates a shift in the political climate.
“The socially accepted views are beginning to be challenged, but it’s important to keep the conversation civil and respectful,” Robinson said.
During his first day in office, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government will only recognize two genders, male and female, according to a webpage from the White House.
The White House claims sexes are “not changeable” and all federal government officials must refer to sex instead of gender for federal policies and documents, according to the same source.
Robinson said he considers individuals to be women as long as they were born with two X chromosomes.
There are approximately 5.6 million intersex people, individuals born with physical traits that don’t fit the typical characteristics for male and female around the world, according to a 2023 article from AP News.
Although not all intersex individuals identify as cis or trans, the majority report that their gender identity matches with the gender they were assigned to at birth, according to a March 2024 article from WebMD.
Some women are also born with Turner syndrome, a condition that only affects females and results in female infants being born with one missing or partially missing X chromosome, according to a 2022 article from the Mayo Clinic.
Around 1 of every 2,000 to 4,000 females are born with Turner syndrome, according to a webpage from the National Institute of Health.
Robin McMahon, a sixth-year history student, said she is disappointed that A.S. was unable to pass the resolution.
“If it turns out that one of the council members voted ‘no’ just because they think that trans people should not be allowed in women's sports, I am deeply disappointed and would agree that they probably ought not to sit on the Associated Students (Board of Directors),” she said.
In the Mountain West Conference, institutions have the power to decide whether a transgender athlete is permitted to play on its sports teams, according to the conference’s trans participation policy.
Colleges and universities are also responsible for certifying a student athlete’s eligibility for National Collegiate Athletic Association competitions, according to the same policy.
Student athletes who were assigned male at birth can not participate in women’s sports, but student athletes can still participate in men’s sports regardless of their assigned gender at birth or their sexual orientation, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s trans participation policy.
McMahon, who also openly identifies as a nonbinary trans woman and uses she/they pronouns, said she believes that the university should take more responsibility in supporting trans rights.
“The fact that A.S. is making a resolution about this is an indictment of the larger administration's failure to make it clear what the policies of this institution actually are,” she said.
McMahon said she asks for those in leadership who did not vote in support of the resolution but who also do not have bad intentions to consider her fear and anxiety.
They said they can understand why someone who doesn’t hold strong beliefs against the trans community may still vote against the resolution or abstain, but they should consider a trans person’s perspective.
“I don’t get to avoid that fear,” she said. “ If they were acting without bad faith, I would ask that they consider that I don't get to step back from that. I have to live with that anxiety all the time . . . I would ask that they stand with me instead of against me.”
In a study on trans youth between the ages of 16-24 years old in San Francisco, almost half of participants reported experiencing high amounts of discrimination for being transgender, according to a study from Springer.
Participants who experienced higher exposure to transgender-based discrimination were three times more likely to develop PTSD, according to the same study.
Sanchez said although she is disappointed that resolution did not pass, she was also glad to see one of the directors speak up and consider the small minority of students who don’t support the resolution.
She said she is not trying to tell people what they should or should not believe and that she welcomes open dialogue, even if it is difficult to hear in the moment.
“It does shake you . . . at the same time, I do see it as a challenge, and I welcome the challenge to work on those ideas and see other people's perspectives,” Sanchez said. “I don't believe this is going to be the end of it. I do think it's something that a lot of people on campus are going to be interested in supporting (this resolution).”
