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Arizona State Sen. Catherine Miranda, a Democrat, has come under scrutiny on social media after an exchange with former NCAA volleyball player and “save women’s sports” activist Kaylie Ray.
Ray appeared at the Arizona Senate Education Committee hearing Wednesday to lobby for a bill that would protect women’s sports from biological males. She spoke from the perspective of a former Utah State captain who led a team loss against San Jose State in 2024 in protest of a trans athlete at San Jose State University (SJSU).
After Ray shared his testimony, Miranda opened her response by commenting on Ray’s appearance.
The Mountain West Conference logo is seen before the championship game of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament between the Utah State Aggies and the San Diego State Aztecs at the Thomas & Mack Center on March 16, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David Becker/Getty Images)
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“I’m wearing my sports hat now. It’s all about a sports mentality, growing up playing sports, being a tomboy. I mean, you look pretty healthy. I’ve played against girls who look like you. You look very fit and strong,” Miranda said.
The state senator then argued against Ray’s position and the bill by asserting that she herself had competed against men in sports and would compete against men in sports, ending her lecture with the question, “How competitive do you think you really are?”
At no point in Miranda’s response did she ever use the word “transgender” or even “male” or “female.” She simply referred to male opponents as “men”.
“It’s a sports mentality when you grow up and how much competition you want to take on. So it’s not just a golden ball for a community of sports players, it’s the individual person on how competitive you want to be. So you grew up one way. I grew up another way. I would have taken on a man in a heartbeat. I’ve played on a man, I was the only one I could have been on, sometimes in sports. that,” Miranda said.
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(left) former NCAA volleyball player Kaylie Ray, (right) Arizona Senator Catherine Miranda (Courtesy of ICONS, Arizona State Legislature)
“But this is just my opinion… and that’s why this bill is bad, because you’re just putting an entire community of women’s sports into one category. When women like me, we have a different opinion. So how competitive do you think you really are?”
According to a 2017 post in Hispanic Engineer & Technology, Miranda previously talked about his experience playing sports with his brother.
“Sports was my life. There were four girls and one boy in my family. My brother made me his ‘little brother’ so he could have someone to play sports with. I was a 100% tomboy,” claiming she was the only girl who played in a local little league, the website reported.
Ray argued back to Miranda at the hearing that the proposed bill would include three gender categories, male, female and co-ed.
“If you’re going to compete against your husband, by all means let’s do it in the co-ed section,” Ray said.
“The clarity and distinction is really important. Because when men get access to women’s sports and spaces, it’s not women’s sports and spaces anymore.”
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Ray has given an extended response to Miranda in a statement to Pakinomist Digital.
“I wonder if she could look Riley Gaines, Brooke Slusser, Lainey Armistead, Madison Kenyon, Mary Kate Marshall and every single girl who has been forced to compete against a man in the eye and tell them they’re just not competitive enough?” Ray said.
“Wanting fairness doesn’t make someone a coward. Wanting safe and equal competition doesn’t mean a girl doesn’t have what it takes. It means she respects herself and the effort and commitment that women have put into building opportunities in sports… No single woman has the right to give away the opportunities and protections that so many others have worked so hard to secure.”
Kaylie Ray stands next to Brooke Slusser as she speaks outside the US Supreme Court. (Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to Miranda’s office for comment.
Ray, a three-time Mountain West Conference champion, was one of five conference teams to lose at least one game to San Jose State in the 2024 season amid controversy over trans athlete Blaire Fleming. After completing her master’s degree at Weber State in 2025, she spoke at a ‘red women’s sports’ rally outside the US Supreme Court in January.
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She spoke with Slusser, who was the SJSU co-captain who filed the lawsuit after sharing a team and apartment with Fleming in 2023 without knowing Fleming was a transgender biological male.
The SJSU controversy has returned to the national spotlight in 2026 after the school as a university sued the federal government to challenge a Department of Education investigation that found the school violated Title IX in its handling of Fleming.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the lawsuit Wednesday, giving the university 10 days to reach a settlement agreement or face funding cuts and a referral to the Justice Department.
