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HOLLYWOOD – Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the former UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived at Serra on Vine in a purple dress and stilettos (about 6-foot-5) to accept the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Rainbow Labs, was sponsored in part by Los Angeles sports organizations such as the Dodgers and LA Football Club.
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Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas finishes eighth in the 100 freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19, 2022. (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports)
Before Thomas’ speech, a mention of the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew light applause from the crowd, although no one from the team spoke during the program.
LAFC and Dodgers among those who support Thomas and LGBT activists
After mingling with the crowd and two drag performances, Lia Thomas took the stage to accept the Voice of Inspiration award and proceeded to double down on finding purpose in trans activism.
But before that, a video montage was played about Thomas, tracing the path from competing on the men’s team as William Thomas to entering the women’s competition in 2022 as Lia Thomas.
Thomas was portrayed as an athlete fighting for acceptance while facing backlash.
“An incredible thank you to everyone at Rainbow Labs for bringing me and everyone here and putting this all together,” Thomas began.
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. (Alejandro Ávila/OutKick)
“I am very excited because I remember very well that not long ago I was 18 years old and I realized that I am trans.”
Thomas, 26, continued: “And feeling so excited at the prospect of being able to be who I am, but feeling so terrified to take those steps because I didn’t know any other trans people. I didn’t know them, I barely knew what it meant to be trans.”
“Being open and open to myself seemed like an impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it.”
Thomas credited having trans mentors with helping the swimmer reconcile a trans identity with athletics.
Thomas said: “It’s only because of so many incredible trans mentors that I was able to find that strength and that courage to go out and be myself and finally reconcile my ‘transness’ and my swimmer identity and be able to compete as a now trans woman.”
LIA THOMAS SPEAKS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE UPENN AGREED TRUMP TO ADMINISTER RESOLUTION TO PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTS
Lia Thomas calls the trans platform “my purpose”
After Thomas joined the competition, female athletes, including OutKick’s Riley Gaines, spoke out to denounce men who play women’s sports.
During the 2024 campaign, then-President-elect Donald Trump proved to be a strong supporter of Gaines and other women, raising concerns about running against men.
Their influence led to Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports.
The president even suspended federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania for allowing Thomas to compete with women, although UPenn eventually became the third school to reject the president’s funding conditions.
“And I’m very grateful for them, for those people and those mentors, and I’m very happy that organizations like Rainbow Labs exist,” Thomas added, saying that people were taking to social media with “messages of violence.”
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. (Alejandro Ávila/OutKick)
“If I had had an organization like that when I was a child to give me the knowledge and the language to describe my transness, how important that would have been. Because I faced a lot of bullying. I received a lot of messages of violence against me in my Instagram comments and direct messages. I didn’t know what to do.”
Speakers throughout the night presented LGBT Americans as people living under oppression and celebrated people who identify as transgender as the heroes of the event.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and Thomas’ inclusion has also sparked controversy over allowing men to share women’s locker rooms.
Thomas is unfazed, even after all the controversy, and considers a platform as an influential trans figure “my purpose.”
FORMER UPENN SWIMMER LIA THOMAS TO RECEIVE ‘VOICE OF INSPIRATION’ AWARD AT EVENT SPONSORED BY THE DODGERS
Transgender Penn swimmer Lia Thomas speaks with her coach after winning the 500-meter freestyle during an NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
“But I owe so much to those mentors before me that it was clear I had to be the next lighthouse in a line of torches that went back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my purpose. That’s what I was here for,” Thomas said.
“And so to be able to be the next light for people is an honor that I can’t describe. It means more than anything. And I’m so grateful for the opportunity to do it. And thank you all so much.”
Since Thomas’s inclusion in women’s college swimming (presided over by the NCAA), women’s rights activists such as Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas, have denounced the loss of opportunities and awards for women due to the inclusion of trans athletes, which networks such as ESPN have promoted.
Lia Thomas was quiet, but she won’t go away
As more people spoke out against Thomas and similar cases, such as trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming, Thomas began to lose some of the favor granted by the media.
The tone of the evening reflected an effort to make mainstream American culture more fully embrace LGBT identity and activism.
“We are a community of queer fans, local leaders, followers and activists of the Los Angeles Football Club. And if you don’t know, we follow sports because we have always been here. We have been athletes, we have been fans, we have been sports lovers.
“And that’s why our presence in this club reminds not only the club, the community, but the world that we have always been here. And that’s why we cheer, full of joy and love for our local community, but we also represent our queer people, and we are very proud to be there every step of the way.”
Once all the awards were handed out (one also went to a gender non-conforming trans woman named “Alok”), the event ended with a striptease show.
For an evening dedicated to inspiration, the show’s final acts offered a strikingly different kind of message.
