West Virginia AG responds to harassment allegations against trans athlete

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey spoke out in response to sexual harassment allegations against a transgender athlete who sued his state to block its law keeping biological males out of women’s sports.

McCuskey, who is leading his state’s legal defense against the trans athlete and will have the case reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, addressed the allegations at a news conference Monday.

“Any time you think about a child being bullied, it gives you pause as a parent. And it’s not really part of our case, but bullying of any child of any kind in this country is inappropriate. And it’s wrong, and we all need to stand up to ensure that kids are not bullied anywhere, particularly in sports,” McCuskey said.

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West Virginia AG responds to harassment allegations against trans athlete

The allegations were leveled against the trans athlete by Bridgeport High School student Adaleia Cross, who is the trans athlete’s former track teammate when the two were at Bridgeport Middle School.

Cross’s mother, Abby, told Pak Gazette Digital what the trans athlete allegedly said to her daughter when they shared the girls’ locker room during the 2022-23 school year. Adaleia was in eighth grade and the trans athlete was in seventh. Abby Cross alleges that the trans athlete made extremely graphic and vulgar sexual threats to her daughter and other girls on the team.

The trans athlete’s legal representatives at the American Civil Liberties Union denied the allegations.

“Our client and her mother deny these allegations and the school district investigated the allegations reported to the school by AC and found them to be unfounded. We remain committed to upholding the rights of all students under Title IX, including the right to a safe and inclusive learning environment, free from harassment and discrimination,” reads an ACLU statement provided to Pak Gazette Digital.

The Cross family’s attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) responded to the ACLU’s statement.

“Our client has sworn under oath and under penalty of perjury in numerous cases regarding the events that took place between her and the male athlete. As a result of the situation, [Cross] “He had to completely step away from the sport he loved and sacrifice a key element of his school experience to protect himself,” read an ADF statement provided to Pak Gazette Digital.

The trans athlete personally denied the allegations to the New York Times in an article published on Monday.

TOP OTHERS SILENCE AFTER TRANS ATHLETE THEY SUPPORTED IN SCOTUS CASE IS ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION

“I wasn’t raised like that,” the athlete said.

The outlet obtained a letter from the Harrison County School District, stating that an investigation determined Cross’ allegations “could not be substantiated.”

The Cross family said that when they reported the alleged harassment to the school, as far as they knew, nothing was done to reprimand the trans athlete.

“They told me they would do a full investigation into what I told them,” Adaleia said. “And then all of a sudden it was like nothing else was happening, it was already done, and it seemed like they didn’t think of anything because they didn’t talk to us about it at all, they just left it there and didn’t tell us anything else, so it just seemed like, well, it’s done.”

His father, Holden Cross, said: “We received no response from the school after submitting the report.”

Pak Gazette Digital made repeated requests to the ACLU and the Harrison County School District, which oversees Bridgeport Middle School and Bridgeport High School, seeking documentation related to the school’s investigation and clarification on whether an investigation occurred and, if so, why only the Cross family was not notified of the results. Those requests have not been met.

OutKick Podcast Host and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines also addressed the allegations at Monday’s press conference, recounting Adaleia’s testimony and saying the experience “traumatized” Cross.

“We have to worry about high school-aged girls who have to worry about being told these things in the undressing area,” Gaines said. “The alleged things that were said to her, now as a father, I imagine my husband would choose the words if someone said things like that to our daughter. [Cross] “She told me it traumatized her.”

Gaines and McCuskey were joined Monday by the attorneys general of Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Virginia, Ohio, the legal counsel to the Alabama attorney general, and four other female sports activists; Olympic silver medalist gymnast MyKayla Skinner, former USA gymnast and founder of XX-XY Athletics Jennifer Sey, former NCAA volleyball player Macy Petty and former California college women’s soccer player Sophia Lorey.

The group made comments in support of the legal defense of “Save Women’s Sports” a day before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two cases on the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports, including McCuskey’s case in West Virginia and a separate case in Idaho.

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has been fighting a lawsuit from a trans athlete who sued to block the state’s women’s sports law since 2020 and criticized that trans athlete for trying to drop the case after the Supreme Court agreed to review it.

“This athlete never decided to dismiss the case until the cir motion was granted by the United States Supreme Court. So when they knew they were in the Ninth Circuit that they would win, they agreed to this case being heard. When they found out they were going to the Supreme Court, they decided to try to dismiss this case. I think that’s fundamentally unfair. I think that’s cleverness and I hope the court, the United States Supreme Court sees it that way.”

Skinner reflected on her career in women’s gymnastics and becoming a mother out of her passion as she joined the battle to “save women’s sports.”

“Remaining silent on important issues does not benefit the next generation of girls. I have spent my entire life in women’s sports. I know how rare and difficult these opportunities are. That is why what is happening now at the Supreme Court and in states like Utah matters so much more,” Skinner said.

“Women’s sports exist because men and women are biologically different. In gymnastics, women don’t compete in the rings. Why? Because men are stronger. And the events are designed around physiological reality. That’s not controversial. It’s common sense.”

Petty shared her experience of having to play a transgender athlete during her college career, recounting the hard work and sacrifices, including missing prom, that were necessary to earn the opportunity to play college volleyball.

“But instead of showing off those skills I had been training my entire life to develop, they watched a kid hit the ball in our faces. Now, there were plenty of opportunities for this kid to play on the kids’ courts on the other side of the convention center where, of course, the nets are more than 7 inches taller than ours. But instead, it was humiliating. It was degrading to me as a woman. And of course, it jeopardized my chance to even put on that jersey in the first place.”

Lorey criticized California leaders, including Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom, for continuing to allow the state to be a hotbed of controversial incidents involving biological males competing in women’s sports.

“Our own Attorney General, Rob Bonta, will not lift a finger to protect girls,” Lorey said. “When I testified in the California state capital in defense of girls, an assemblyman compared what we were saying to the times of Nazi Germany.”

Sey, like Skinner, also recounted her experience as a professional gymnast on her way to becoming US champion and said she would never have achieved this if she had to compete against men.

“Why do little girls even bother competing at any given time when they know our institutions don’t care that it’s not fair to them? I tell you, that’s the end of it. They stop trying. They stop competing all together. Why would they bother if they have no chance of making the team, of the podium, of winning? In the end, they won’t do it. They’ll stop trying,” Sey warned.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita was the only figure present Monday calling for empathy for trans athletes, becoming visibly emotional as he recounted an incident in 2022 when his state was sued by the ACLU and a 10-year-old transgender plaintiff for enacting a law allowing only biological women in women’s sports.

Rokita argued that the 10-year-old had been “co-opted by the left.”

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“That plaintiff in Indiana was 10 years old and I say my opinion was co-opted by the left. That 10-year-old girl needs love and everyone else like her does too. That 10-year-old girl needs therapy. What that 10-year-old girl and everyone like that person doesn’t need is to be affirmed of the wrongness that was in that case in Indiana,” Rokita said.

“So to my colleagues, good luck tomorrow. May justice prevail.”