The former transgender swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania, Lia Thomas, recently spoke to support the community of Trans athletes, most Americans have opposed trans inclusion in female sports.
Thomas talked about the problem at the Hitops Trans Youth Forum on Saturday.
“I will continue to fight as much as I can,” said Thomas on Zoom.
“In order to fight the battles we have to fight, we have to hold together and support each other.”
Thomas’ recent comments arise three years after the athlete was authorized to swim in the female category for Upenn at the Ivy 2022 League championships and the NCAA championships. Thomas previously competed for the university’s male swimming team under the name of Will Thomas.
But the previous eligibility policy between the sexes of the NCAA allowed Trans athletes to compete and share the locker room with women, then Thomas took advantage of them and broke several female records.
Thomas was even the main objective of the mainly positive attention of traditional inherited media in 2022, interviewing ESPN, NBC News and “Good Morning America”.
Riley Gaines wants to send a “ thank you note ” to Lia Thomas – This is why
The swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania Lia Thomas and the Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after having equalized for fifth place in 200 m free at the NCAA swimming and diving championships on March 18, 2022 in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
But three years later, President Donald Trump ordered the national prohibition of Trans athletes in female sports, the NCAA has changed its policy aimed at preventing organic men from competing with female teams, and the data suggest that the vast majority of Americans oppose Trans inclusion in female sports.
But Thomas thinks that the inclusion policies of trans athletes should be left to the trans athletes themselves.
“It must be the athletes who decide for themselves where they feel the most assertive and most comfortable,” she said. “Having safe and non -discriminatory routes, which allow them to access this.”
Thomas’ inclusion in the female swimming team in Upenn during the 2021-222 season caused several prosecution and a break in 175 million dollars in university funding for violations of the title IX.
Riley Gaines are currently carrying out a trial against NCAA, alongside several other women who competed with Thomas in 2021-2010, during his previous gender policy.
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Penn’s Lia Thomas after swaming the 100 free preliminaries at the NCAA swimming and diving championships on March 19, 2022 in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In February, three of Thomas’ former teammates filed a complaint against the University, Ivy League and NCAA, seeking to revoke all Thomas records in the female category, while alleging that the university pushed the pro-transfective ideology in the team.
The three former female swimmers, Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, say that by allowing Thomas to compete, the institutions “wounded them and violated them federal law”.
“The administrators of Upenn told women that if someone had trouble accepting Thomas’ participation in the UPENN women’s team, they should ask for advice and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” said trial.
“Administrators also invited women to a conference entitled” Trans 101 “. Thus, women were led to understand that Upenn’s position was that if a woman in the team had a problem with a trans-identifying man in her team, this woman had a psychological problem and needed advice.”
Meanwhile, after the 2022 college season, Thomas tried to participate in the Olympic Games as a woman, but was refused. World Aquatics changed its policy later that year to ban any Trans athlete who crossed male puberty to participate in the female category.
Thomas lost a judicial challenge to this rule in 2024.
“I felt so devastated and [felt] Sorrow to lose this access to my sport, “said Thomas on Saturday.” There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to fight this, that it is my sport too, and I will not just abandon it. “”
A recent New York Times / Ipsos survey Found that the vast majority of Americans, including the majority of Democrats, do not think that transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in female sports. Of the 2,128 people interviewed, 79% said that biological men who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in female sports.
Of the 1,025 people who have identified as a democrats or who lean a democrat, 67% said that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
Lia Thomas participated in the 200 meter freestyle at a university meeting of the NCAA against the University of Harvard on January 22, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP photo / Josh Reynolds)
A National exit survey Directed by the Legislative Action Committee for women concerned for women for America revealed that 70% of moderate voters saw the question of “Donald Trump’s opposition to boys and transgender men playing sports for girls and women and transgender boys and men using bathrooms and women” as important for them. In addition, 6% said it was everyone’s most important problem, while 44% said it was “very important”.
Gaines, which sadly famous Thomas at the NCAA 2022 championships, has since become an eminent conservative political influencer and believes the inclusion of Thomas in the female category played strongly in the 2024 elections.
“I think we should send a note of thanks to people like Will Thomas, I really do, signed and sealed by me. I will sign the thank you note, I will write it, because I think he has given us the election,” Gaines to PK Press Club Digital.
