A Michigan father says his family received alleged death threats, racist insults and threats that someone would blow up their home after he and his teenage daughter spoke publicly about her unknowingly competing against a transgender athlete in girls’ volleyball.
“We’ve been threatened with violence, called Nazis, subjected to racist insults, and even received threats to blow up our home,” Sean Lechner told Fox News Digital. “The situation became so serious that the FBI contacted us.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI for comment.
Lechner said his family received an “overwhelming amount of support” but also the hostile responses after he and his 16-year-old daughter, Briley, spoke out in support of protecting girls’ sports. They originally spoke out last fall before resuming interviews about the situation this past week on “Fox & Friends” and with Moms for Liberty.
“All of this because I’m a father standing beside my daughter, her teammates, and every female athlete who deserves safety, privacy, fairness, and equal opportunity,” the father said.
Briley, a student-athlete at Monroe High School in Michigan, said her father absorbed most of the abuse after the family went public. She has also received alleged messages accusing her of attacking transgender people and spreading hate.
“We’ve received death threats and threats of people coming to our house or going to my father’s work,” she told Fox News Digital.
“Of course, I never want to spread negativity. I don’t want to spread hate or anything, and it does hurt to see that that’s how people are viewing me. But I also stick to my ground, and I know what I’m standing up for, and I know what I’m battling for.”
The backlash left Briley feeling as if she and her family had been abandoned by some of the adults in positions of political and educational power in her state.
“It makes me feel like I’m almost on my own, in a way,” she said. “Those are the people that we expect to protect us and give us female athletes a fair game, and that’s the last thing that it seems like they’re prioritizing.
“For me, a 16-year-old girl, to have to be the one that speaks out about it and fights for the change, it’s just not right, in my opinion.”
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The controversy began when Briley competed against a biological male trans athlete from another school. She competed against the athlete in Fall 2024 as a freshman, and early in the 2025 season before finding out later in 2025. Fox News Digital is not disclosing any identifying information about the athlete.
Sean Lechner filed a Title IX complaint last December claiming that his daughter and her teammates had to share a locker room with the trans athlete ahead of that early-season matchup.
“I wasn’t aware that it was a male,” she said.
“It was about a day or two where rumors were spread around afterwards, and my dad and I were talking about it and he said that a fellow parent and friend talked to him about it, and then my teammate started saying things.”
After she found out, she said she was “devastated.”
“I was devastated and, of course, concerned,” Briley said. “I was very much caught off guard.”
“We were asking why we weren’t informed ahead of time,” Briley said. “We were told that there was nothing they could do about it and that they had to protect this trans athlete.”
She said she received no apology or acknowledgment from school officials.
The discovery also forced her to reflect on what she had seen across the net.
“They could jump much higher. They could swing much harder, get the ball down a lot harder, move quicker. It just seemed like they were stronger all the way around.”
When Monroe played the trans athlete’s team in a rematch, Briley and her teammates went into it knowing that they were facing a biological male.
“It was very weird,” she said. “It was something that I knew shouldn’t have been happening, and it kind of made me put my focus on that rather than just thinking about playing a regular game.”
“I 100% think that knowing that there was a male on the other side mentally got in my teammates’ and my head.”
Monroe lost the second matchup as well.
Briley first spoke publicly about the controversy after the season ended on Dec. 8, standing before a bank of cameras outside the Monroe County Courthouse as her father announced his Title IX complaint, with a swarm of local media in attendance to cover the controversy as it had garnered national attention throughout the season.
“I knew that it was for the best,” she said, “and I knew that fighting for female athletes is definitely what I want to continue to do.”
She says the harassment began shortly after that first speaking appearance at the courthouse.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened investigations into Monroe and Ann Arbor Public Schools in June. The department said it would examine allegations that Monroe required female athletes to compete and share facilities with a biological male and then failed to respond appropriately to parents’ concerns.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s policy allows the association’s executive director to determine a transgender girl’s eligibility for postseason competition on a case-by-case basis. Schools make their own regular-season participation decisions.
The national legal landscape shifted on June 30, when the Supreme Court ruled that Title IX allows schools to maintain separate boys’ and girls’ teams based on biological sex. All nine justices agreed on the Title IX question, while the court divided 6-3 on the athletes’ constitutional claims.
The decision allows states to protect sex-separated teams but does not require every state to do so. The MHSAA has said Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act still requires its current transgender participation policy unless state lawmakers change the law.
Briley said she recognizes that the opposing athlete may also feel targeted.
“I do feel that they might feel like we’re attacking them, and it does suck that they have to be the one person that this is blowing up on,” she said. “But it only takes one person.”
But she also said the experience has made her more hesitant to attend college in Michigan. She hopes to play soccer at the collegiate level and now plans to examine schools’ policies before deciding where she would feel comfortable.
Sean said the threats have only strengthened the family’s resolve.
“I never imagined that simply trying to be a good father and protect my daughter would result in this level of hatred,” he said. “But instead of letting that hate and anger consume us, we turned it into purpose. We leaned on our faith, stood together as a family, and dedicated ourselves to advocating for what we believe is right.”
“We won’t be intimidated, and we won’t be silenced,” he added. “We will continue to fight until my daughter—and every female athlete—has the safety, privacy, fairness, and opportunities they deserve.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Monroe Public Schools, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Ann Arbor Public Schools for comment.
