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 legislation that kept biological males out of girls’ sports.

McCuskey, who is conducting his state’s legal defense against the transgender athlete, whose case the US Supreme Court reviewed on Tuesday, touched upon the allegations at a press conference on Monday.

“When you think about a child being abused, it gives you pause as a parent. It’s not our topic, but it’s inappropriate for any child to be abused in this country. And it’s wrong, and we all need to stand up to make sure that children aren’t abused anywhere, especially in athletics,” McCuskey said. he said.

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West Virginia AG responds to harassment allegations against transgender athlete

The allegations were leveled against the transgender athlete by Bridgeport High School student Adaleia Cross, who was the transgender athlete’s former track and field teammate while at Bridgeport Middle School.

Cross’s mother, Abby, told Fox News Digital about what the transgender 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 transgender athlete was in seventh grade. Abby Cross alleges that the transgender athlete made extremely graphic and crude sexual threats to her daughter and other girls on the team.

The transgender 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 the AC and found them to be unfounded. We are committed to defending the rights of all students under Title IX, including the right to a safe and inclusive learning environment free from harassment and discrimination,” an ACLU statement provided to Fox News Digital said.

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

“Our client has been under oath and perjury in many cases regarding the events between himself and the male athlete. As a result of this 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 Fox News Digital.

Trans athlete personally denied the allegations New York Times in a story published Monday.

TOP DEMS IS QUIET AFTER A TRANS ATHLETE IT SUPPORTED IN SCOTUS CASE WAS ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SPOTLIGHT

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

The publication obtained a letter from the Harrison County School District stating that the investigation determined that Cross’s allegations “cannot be proven.”

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

“They said they would thoroughly investigate what I told them,” Adaleia said. “And then, all of a sudden, as if nothing else was happening, it was done, and it was like they weren’t thinking anything of it because they never talked to us about it, they left it all there and didn’t tell us anything else, so it just looked like ‘yeah, it’s over’.”

“We did not receive any response from the school after we made our report,” said his father, Holden Cross.

Fox News Digital has made repeated requests to the ACLU and the Harrison County School District, which oversees Bridgeport Middle School and Bridgeport High School, seeking documents related to the school’s investigation and an explanation of whether an investigation was conducted and, if so, why only the Cross family was not notified of the results. These demands were not met.

OutKick podcast Host and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines also addressed the allegations at a press conference Monday, quoting Adaleia’s statement and saying the experience “traumatized” Cross.

“We need to be concerned about middle school-age girls who are worried about these things being said in the locker area,” Gaines said. “The things that are allegedly being said to him right now as a parent and I imagine my husband would have preferential words if someone said things like that to our daughter. I would like to pass on some things [Cross] “He told me it traumatized him.”

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

The group issued statements supporting the “Save Women’s Sports” legal defense a day before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two cases related to the issue of transgender athletes in girls sports, including the McCuskey case in West Virginia and a separate case in Idaho.

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has been fighting the case of a transgender athlete who sued to block the state’s women’s sports law since 2020, and he called out the transgender athlete for trying to throw out the case after the Supreme Court agreed to review.

“This athlete never decided to dismiss the case until his petition for cirque was granted by the U.S. Supreme Court. So when they knew they were going to win in the Ninth Circuit, they saw no harm in trying this case. When they knew they were going to go before the Supreme Court, they decided to dismiss this case. I think that’s fundamentally unfair. I think it’s gamesmanship, and I hope the court and the U.S. Supreme Court see it that way.”

Skinner considered becoming a mother with a passion for women’s gymnastics careers and joining the fight to “save women’s sport.”

“Staying silent on important issues does not serve the next generation of girls. I’ve spent my whole life in women’s sports, and I know how rare and difficult these opportunities are. That’s why what’s happening right now at the Supreme Court and in states like Utah is even more important,” Skinner said.

“Women’s sports exist because men and women are biologically different. In gymnastics, women don’t compete in the ring. 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 with a transgender athlete during her college career and talked about the hard work and sacrifices, including missing prom, to get the chance to play volleyball in college.

“But instead of showing off the skills I’ve worked my whole life to improve, they watched a kid hit the ball in our face. Now, there were plenty of opportunities for this kid to play on the men’s courts on the other side of the convention center, where the nets were 25 feet higher than ours. But instead it was humiliating. It was humiliating for me as a woman. And of course, it jeopardized my opportunity to even wear that jersey on the first game of the floor.”

Lorey condemned California leadership, including Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom, for continuing to allow the state to become a hotbed of controversial events involving biological males competing in girls’ sports.

“Our attorney general, Rob Bonta, will not lift a finger to protect the girls,” Lorey said. “When I testified in defense of the girls at the California State Capitol, a council member compared what we said to the times of Nazi Germany.”

Like Skinner, Sey talked about her experience as a professional gymnast on her way to becoming a U.S. champion and said she would never have achieved it if she had had to compete with men.

“Why would little girls bother competing at a certain point when they know it doesn’t matter to our institutions that it’s not fair to them? I’m telling you, that’s the end of it. They stop trying. They stop competing all together. If they don’t have a chance to make the team, to make the podium, to win, why bother? Eventually they won’t. They’ll stop trying,” Sey warned.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita was the only person in attendance Monday to call for empathy for transgender athletes, and he became visibly emotional as he described a 2022 incident in which he was sued by the ACLU and a 10-year-old transgender plaintiff for his state passing a law allowing only biological females in girls’ sports.

Rokita argued that the 10-year-old boy was “chosen by the left.”

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“The plaintiff in Indiana was 10 years old, and I say my opinion was adopted by the left. That 10-year-old needs love, and so does everyone else like him. That 10-year-old needs therapy. What that 10-year-old and others like him don’t need is validation of the wrong that happened in Indiana,” Rokita said.

“Good luck to my colleagues tomorrow. May justice prevail.”

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