Injured volleyball player speaks out after alleged transgender opponent spiked ball at her

RALEIGH, N.C. (TND) — A high school volleyball player who suffered severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms after a girl she says is transgender spiked a ball in her face is now speaking out publicly for the first time.

"Due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females my life has forever been changed," Payton McNabb, now a senior atHiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina, said during a Thursday committee hearing of the North Carolina state legislature.

McNabb indicated that, to this day, she is still recovering from her injuries, and continues to face other health struggles as a result of what happened, such as impaired vision, partial paralysis on the right side of her body, constant headaches, anxiety and depression.

"I was unable to play the rest of my last volleyball season, and although I'm currently playing softball I'm not able to perform as well as I know I have in the past because of the injury," McNabb continued.

She added that her ability to retain and comprehend information has been "impaired," forcing her to obtain accommodations at school as well.

But McNabb insisted she was not speaking out for herself or to complain about how the incident upended her life and athletic career.

"I'm here for every biological female athlete behind me. My little sister, my cousins, my teammates," McNabb said. "Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn't pass I won't be the last."

McNabb was referring to North Carolina's Fairness in Women's Sports Act, which recently passed in the state House and is now awaiting approval in the Senate. The bill would expressly prohibit individuals from competing on sport's teams that do not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

"My ability to compete was taken from me. Having to play against biological males is not a level playing field and it is most definitely not safe," McNabb said, after calling out theNorth Carolina High School Athletic Association for allowing transgender females who are biological males to compete against women.

"It is the intent that all students are able to compete on a level playing field, in a safe, competitive and friendly environment free of discrimination," the North Carolina high schooler concluded. "Clearly, that does not include biological female athletes."

Following McNabb's injury last year,Cherokee County Schools in North Carolina decided to halt all future competitionbetween the school's volleyball team that allowed a transgender person to play and the rest of the volleyball teams within the school district.