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Democratic Arizona state Sen. Catherine Miranda has faced scrutiny on social media after an exchange with Kaylie Ray, a former NCAA volleyball player and activist to “save women’s sports.”
Ray appeared at the Arizona Senate Education Committee hearing Wednesday to push for a bill that would protect women’s sports from biological males. She spoke from the perspective of a former Utah State captain who forfeited a team 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 Mountain West Conference basketball tournament championship game 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 cap now. It’s all about the sports mentality, growing up in sports, being a tomboy. I mean, you look pretty healthy. I’ve played against girls that look like you. You look very fit and strong,” Miranda said.
The state senator then objected to Ray’s position and the bill by saying that she herself had competed against men in sports and would compete against men in sports and ended her lecture with the question: “How competitive do you think you really are?”
At no point in Miranda’s response did she use the word “transgender” or even “man” or “woman.” She simply referred to male opponents as “men.”
“It’s a sports mentality when you grow up and the level of competition you face. So it’s not just a silver bullet for a sports community, it’s the individual person who knows how competitive they want to be. So you grew up one way. I grew up a different way. I would have played a man in a heartbeat. I played, I was the only girl in sports sometimes. But to have a man on my team, I would have him appreciated,” Miranda said.
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(left) Former NCAA volleyball player Kaylie Ray, (right) Arizona State Senator Catherine Miranda. (Courtesy of ICONS, Arizona State Legislature)
“But that’s just my opinion…and that’s why this bill is bad because you’re just putting an entire women’s sports community in one category. When women like me, we have a different opinion. So how competitive do you think you really are?”
According to a 2017 article in Hispanic Engineer & Technology, Miranda previously spoke about her sports experience with her 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 100 percent a tomboy,” and claimed she was the only girl playing in a local little league, the website reported.
Ray retorted to Miranda during the hearing that the proposed bill would include three gender categories, male, female and mixed.
“If you want to compete with your man, absolutely, let’s do it in the mixed section,” Ray said.
“Clarity and distinction are really important. Because when men are allowed into women’s sports and spaces, it’s no longer about women’s sports and spaces.”
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Ray provided a detailed response to Miranda in a statement to PK Press Club Digital.
“I wonder if she could look at Riley Gaines, Brooke Slusser, Lainey Armistead, Madison Kenyon, Mary Kate Marshall and all the girls who have been forced to compete with a man in the eye and tell them that 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 respecting herself and the effort and dedication that women have put into creating opportunities in sports…No woman has the right to forgo the opportunities and protections that so many others have worked so hard for.”
Kaylie Ray stands alongside Brooke Slusser as she speaks before the U.S. Supreme Court. (Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)
PK Press Club Digital has reached out to Miranda’s office for comment.
Ray, a three-time Mountain West Conference champion, was one of five teams in the conference to lose at least one game to San Jose State during the 2024 season amid controversy over trans athlete Blaire Fleming. After graduating from Weber State in 2025 with her graduate degree, she spoke at a rally to “save women’s sports” at the U.S. Supreme Court in January.
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She spoke alongside Slusser, who was the SJSU co-captain who filed a lawsuit after sharing a team and apartment with Fleming in 2023 without knowing that Fleming was a transgender biological man.
The SJSU controversy 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 determined the school violated Title IX in its handling of Fleming.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the complaint Wednesday, giving the university 10 days to reach a resolution agreement or face funding cuts and a referral to the Justice Department.
