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Prominent transgender swimmer Lia Thomas spoke in an interview for the first time since the University of Pennsylvania agreed with President Donald Trump’s administration in June to remove the athlete’s swimming records from the women’s program’s records and adopt a policy to exclude biological males from women’s sports.
In an interview with WHYY, Thomas did not directly address the deal with the Trump administration, but sent a message to those who do not believe biological male trans athletes should compete in the women’s category.
“You can’t choose when you see me as a woman. You can’t say, ‘You can be a woman in these situations, but not in these,’ because you would never do that to a cis woman,” Thomas said. “But for trans women, a lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s okay for me to be the arbiter and choose when I consider them women.'”
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University of Pennsylvania transgender athlete Lia Thomas swims in a preliminary heat for the 500-meter freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Thomas gave this response when asked how the athlete would address people who are not against transgender rights, but who support protecting women’s sports from male inclusion. Thomas went on to suggest that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prevents trans athletes from having a competitive advantage.
“There are massive losses in muscle mass, strength and endurance, and making blanket statements like, ‘Oh, I see you as a woman, but you just shouldn’t compete in women’s sports’ is both transphobic and doesn’t reflect the realities of being trans and taking HRT,” Thomas said.
A study by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank, argued that “there is neither a medical intervention nor an intelligent philosophical argument that can make transgender women’s participation in women’s sport equitable.”
UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP’S MANDATE ON PROTECTING WOMEN’S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATION
“For trans women who successfully suppressed their testosterone for 12 months, the magnitude of muscle/strength loss is only approximately (and modest) -5% after 12 months,” the authors said. “Testosterone suppression does not remove the athletic advantage gained under conditions of high testosterone at puberty, while the male musculoskeletal advantage is preserved.”
Thomas also explained that he was in a relationship with a woman before making the decision to have gender affirmation surgery. Thomas recalled the moment in the summer of 2018 when the former college swimmer openly admitted, “I’m trans” for the first time.
“My girlfriend and I at the time were staying on campus to take a summer class. She was and continued to be a very loyal queer ally. And she invited me to go with her to a pride parade as an ally to support. And as a closeted trans woman, I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely, I would love to hang out with cool, queer people,'” Thomas said. “That night when we got home, I came out to her. And I think that was maybe the first time I said out loud, ‘I’m trans.’ And that was a really big step, and she was incredibly supportive.”
Thomas competed for the UPenn women’s swim team during the 2021-22 season, after previously competing for the men’s team. Thomas went on to win the NCAA Division I national championship in the 500-yard freestyle, earned three All-America honors at the NCAA Championships, and was named the high-level meet swimmer at the Ivy League Championships.
Several women who competed alongside Thomas that season, both UPenn teammates and competitors from other schools, spoke about their experiences sharing the pool and locker rooms with Thomas.
Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and OutKick host, infamously tied with Thomas at the NCAA championships that year, and later filed a lawsuit and became a well-known advocate for women’s sports rights in the years that followed. Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA includes a plaintiff’s list of several other opponents of Thomas that year, including former North Carolina State swimmer Kylee Alons and former Kentucky swimmer Kaitlyn Wheeler.
The lawsuit partially advanced the Sept. 27 motions to dismiss.
Another lawsuit filed by three of Thomas’ former teammates at UPenn was also filed against the university and the Ivy League. The plaintiffs are former UPenn swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist.
Former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan was the first of Thomas’ teammates to speak out about the situation, and the only one to do so during and shortly after the 2022 season. The others waited years to share their experiences.
Former UPenn swimmer Monika Burzynska said she was assigned the locker right next to that of Lia Thomas when the transgender athlete joined the women’s swim team in 2021.
“I thought it must be terrible to feel trapped in the wrong body. To be so disconnected from who you really are,” Burzynska previously told PK Press Club Digital. “You have these issues that come from afar and you never really think they’re going to affect you personally until you’re on a team with Lia Thomas and your locker is right next to this biological male. And you never thought you’d face that issue directly.
“And then when that happens, your perspective changes and you still feel sorry for that person because they’re clearly so deeply lost. But then it turns into ‘OK, that’s not fair,'” Burzynska added.
Meanwhile, Thomas received the Voice of Inspiration award at Rainbow Labs’ Violet Visionary Awards on Thursday. The event is sponsored by both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Football Club, among others.
