Transgender athletes still welcome at junior colleges despite NCAA, NAIA restrictions

Major U.S. universities no longer welcome transgender athletes on their women’s teams, but biological males seeking to participate in female collegiate sports still have options.

The NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the nation’s two largest collegiate sports authorities, now require students to compete based on sex at birth, yet scores of junior colleges outside their purview still defer to gender identity.

The list includes Santa Rosa Junior College, a two-year program now embroiled in a transgender-athlete commotion over Ximena Gomez, a hard-hitting freshman playing on the women’s volleyball team despite being flagged as a biological male.

“Collegiate female athletes are still being forced to share teams and locker rooms with men who self-identify as women,” Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, told The Washington Times.

Three of Gomez’s teammates have filed a Title IX complaint against Santa Rosa with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, while the college has argued that all its athletes meet the eligibility standards of its sports governing body.

Santa Rosa isn’t wrong. The two-year program belongs to the California Community College Athletic Association, known as 3C2A, which allows its 116 member schools to roster female-identifying males on women’s teams who meet certain conditions.

“SRJC is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all students and employees,” said Santa Rosa spokesperson Sarah Pew in a statement. “The district complies with California Community College Athletic Association regulations, which govern student eligibility and participation in our athletic programs.”

Under the 3C2A rules, biological males may participate in women’s sports if they declare their gender status to the college and undergo at least a year of testosterone suppression before competition, although the policy doesn’t say whether they need to keep their testosterone below a certain level.

For biological males who began identifying as female before college, however, the rules are even less stringent, according to the federal complaint filed Sept. 3 by Santa Rosa volleyball players Brielle Galli, Gracie Shaw and Madison Shaw.

Student-athletes need not verify their testosterone levels or disclose their transgender identities if they are “in compliance with 3C2A eligibility guidelines prior to matriculating as a student,” meaning that they “adopted a feminine gender identity before entering community college,” the complaint said.

That exception may be how Gomez entered the program. Before enrolling in junior college, the student identified as female and competed in girls’ volleyball at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa, where the athlete’s mother is reportedly a coach.

Gomez joined the Santa Rosa squad last year as a redshirt freshman, practicing and working out with the team, but didn’t compete in games until the 2025-26 season.

The complaint argued that Santa Rosa and the 3C2A have threatened the “physical safety and equal athletic opportunities for thousands of women junior college athletes” in violation of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding.

1.A male @SantaRosaJC player concussed a woman in practice.
2.Three women have since left the SRJC women’s volleyball team citing safety concerns.
3.Yet the college president, Dr. Garcia, is distributing flyers at women’s games claiming:

“There are NO concerns related to… https://t.co/5PfGql8lvY pic.twitter.com/toBh1Xpl1e

— ICONS (@icons_women) October 10, 2025

For example, the complaint said a female player suffered a concussion after being struck in the head by a ball spiked by Gomez at practice, causing her to miss two weeks of practices and games.

Gracie Shaw said that she herself was hit in the face by a volleyball spiked by Gomez during a practice in August.

“I couldn’t react fast enough to move out of the way, and the ball spiked me in the face,” she said on Fox News Channel. “It was way harder than any other hit that I’ve gotten from the other female athletes on our team. It just kind of goes to show how male athletes have that biological advantage.”

The complaint also said Gomez has been permitted access to the women’s locker room. The athlete was not seen changing clothes, but was present on multiple occasions when female players were undressing.

After discussing the issue with the coach and athletic director, the three female players boycotted the Aug. 15 scrimmage over Gomez’s participation. Afterward, the players were told that the university would abide by state law and the 3C2A policy.

Gomez may not be alone. Santa Rosa Athletic Director Matt Markovich disclosed at a June 23 meeting that he is aware of other biological males participating in women’s sports at both the college and within the conference.

“Athletic Director Markovich explained that there were male athletes competing on other SRJC women’s varsity athletics teams, including the women’s swimming team, and that male athletes were competing on other women’s teams in the 3C2A,” said the 23-page complaint.

Madison Shaw said that most volleyball players support allowing Gomez on the team.

“A majority of our team unfortunately doesn’t see it the way that we see it. They support the male athlete being on our team, and we’re kind of the minority on our team really in this situation,” she told Fox. “They don’t see an issue, and if they do, they’re too scared of what others might think of them if they come out and say what they believe.”

Most four-year colleges no longer allow athletes to compete based on gender identity, thanks to recent rule changes by the NCAA, which oversees more than 1,100 colleges, and the NAIA, thegoverning body for 250 colleges.

In addition, President Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order threatens to pull federal funding from schools that allow biological males in female sports.

So far, however, junior-college authorities haven’t followed their lead. The National Junior College Athletic Association, the largest such sports authority with more than 500 member schools, leaves it to colleges to navigate the legal landscape in their jurisdictions.

“Transgender policy: A member institution allowing a student-athlete to participate in compliance with local, state, or federal law is not a violation of NJCAA Bylaws,” said the NJCAA in its 2025-26 bylaws handbook.

The Northwest Athletic Conference, which governs 37 community colleges in the Pacific Northwest, allows biological males who identify as female to compete in women’s sports after “one calendar year of documented testosterone-suppression treatment,” according to the 2025-26 codebook.

Twenty-nine states have passed laws or policies barring athletes from competing in female sports based on gender identity, while 21 states and the District of Columbia continue to allow transgender athletes in scholastic sports, according to the Movement Advancement Project map.