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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 archives and adopt a policy to keep biological males out of women’s sports.
In an interview with WHYY, Thomas did not directly address the agreement with the Trump administration, but he did send a message to those who do not believe that biological trans male 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 these,’ because you would never do that to a cis woman,” Thomas said. “But in the case of trans women, a lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s okay for me to be the referee and choose when I see them as 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 on Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Thomas gave the answer 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 of muscle mass, strength and endurance, and making blanket statements like, ‘Oh, I see you as a woman, but you shouldn’t compete in women’s sports’ is transphobic and doesn’t reflect the realities of being trans and being on HRT,” Thomas said.
a study of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank, argued that “there is neither a medical intervention nor an intelligent philosophical argument that can make it fair for trans women to compete in women’s sports.”
UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP’S MANDATE TO PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATION
“For trans women who have successfully suppressed testosterone for 12 months, the degree of strength and muscle loss is only approximately (and modest) -5% after 12 months,” the authors said. “Testosterone suppression does not eliminate the athletic advantage acquired under high testosterone conditions at puberty, while the male musculoskeletal advantage is preserved.”
Thomas also opened up about his relationship with a woman before making the decision to undergo gender-affirming 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 has remained a very staunch queer ally. And she invited me to go with her to a pride parade as allies to support. And as a closeted trans woman, I was like, ‘Yeah, I would absolutely love to hang out with cool, queer people,'” Thomas said. “That night when we got home, I told her. And I think that may have been the first time I said ‘I’m trans’ out loud. And that was a very important milestone, and she was incredibly supportive.”
Thomas competed for the UPenn women’s swim team in the 2021-22 season, after previously competing for the men’s team. Thomas won the NCAA Division I national championship in the 500-yard freestyle, earned three All-America honors at the NCAA Championships and was named High Point of the Meet swimmer at the Ivy League Championships.
Several women who competed alongside Thomas that season, both UPenn teammates and competitors from other schools, have spoken about their experience sharing the pool and locker room with Thomas.
Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and OutKick host, infamously tied with Thomas at that year’s NCAA championships, and later sued and became a well-known advocate for women’s sports rights in the years that followed. Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA includes a list of plaintiffs from several other Thomas opponents that year, including former NC State swimmer Kylee Alons and former Kentucky swimmer Kaitlyn Wheeler.
The lawsuit partially advanced on previous motions to dismiss on September 27.
Another lawsuit filed by three of Thomas’ former UPenn teammates against the university and the Ivy League was also filed. 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 have waited years to share their experiences.
Former UPenn swimmer Monika Burzynska said she was assigned a locker just one after Lía 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 out of touch with who you really are,” Burzynska previously told Pak Gazette Digital. “You have these problems that come from afar and you never really think that they are going to touch you personally until you are on a team with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological man. And you would never have believed that you would be facing this problem directly.
“And then when that happens, your views change and you still feel sorry for this person because they’re clearly deeply lost. But then it becomes more: ‘Okay, this isn’t 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 Los Angeles Football Club, among others.
