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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 strip 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 did send a message to those who don’t believe biological male trans athletes should compete in the women’s category.
“You don’t get to pick and choose when you see me as a woman. You don’t get to 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 pick 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 Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Thomas gave the response when asked how the athlete would address people who aren’t against rights for transgender people, but are in support of 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 to muscle mass, strength and endurance, and to make blanket statements like, ‘Oh, I see you as a woman, but you just shouldn’t compete in women’s sports’ is both transphobic and not reflective of the realities of being trans and being on HRT,” Thomas said.
A study by the Macdonald–Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank, argued that “there is neither a medical intervention nor a clever philosophical argument that can make it fair for trans women to compete in women’s sport.”
UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP’S MANDATE ON PROTECTING WOMEN’S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATION
“For trans women who have successfully suppressed testosterone for 12 months, the extent of muscle/strength loss is only an approximately (and modest) -5% after 12 months,” the authors said. “Testosterone suppression does not remove the athletic advantage acquired under high testosterone conditions at puberty, while the male musculoskeletal advantage is retained.”
Thomas also opened up on being in a relationship with a woman prior to making the decision to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Thomas recalled the moment in the summer of 2018 when the former collegiate swimmer openly admitted, “I’m trans” for the first time.
“I and my girlfriend at the time, were staying on campus to do a summer class. She was and has continued to be a very staunch queer ally. And she invited me to go with her to a pride parade as like allies to be supporting. And as a closeted trans women, I was like ‘Yes, absolutely I would love to go hang out with cool, queer people,’” Thomas said. “That evening when we got home, I came out to her. And I think that might have been the first time I said ‘I’m trans,’ out loud. And that was a very huge milestone, and she was incredibly supportive.”
Thomas competed for UPenn women’s swimming team in the 2021-22 season, after previously competing for the men’s team. Thomas went on to win NCAA Division I national championship in the 500-yard freestyle, earned three All-America honors at the NCAA Championships, and was named the High Point Swimmer of the Meet at the Ivy League Championships.
Multiple women who competed alongside Thomas that season, both UPenn teammates and competitors from other schools, have spoken out about their experience sharing the pool and locker room with Thomas.
Former University of Kentucky swimmer and OutKick host Riley Gaines infamously tied with Thomas at the NCAA championships that year, and went on to file a lawsuit and become a well-known women’s sports rights advocate in the years that followed. Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA includes a plaintiff list of several other Thomas opponents that year, including former NC State swimmer Kylee Alons and former Kentucky swimmer Kaitlyn Wheeler.
The lawsuit partially advanced past motions to dismiss on Sept. 27.
Another lawsuit filed by three of Thomas’ former UPenn teammates has also been filed against the university and the Ivy League. The plaintiffs are former UPenn swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist.
Fellow former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan was the first of Thomas’ teammates to speak out about the situation, and the only to do so during and shortly after the 2022 season. The others have waited years to come forward with their experiences.
Former UPenn swimmer Monika Burzynska said she was assigned the locker just one over from Lia Thomas’ when the transgender athlete joined the women’s swim team in 2021.
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“I thought it must be terrible to feel like you’re trapped in the wrong body. Just be so out of touch with who you really are,” Burzynska previously told Fox News Digital. “You have these issues that are from afar and you never really quite think they’re going to touch you personally until you’re on a team with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological male. And you would have never believed that you’d be facing this issue directly.
“And then when that happens, your views change where you still feel sorry for this person because they’re clearly so deeply lost. But then it turns into more, ‘OK, this is not fair,’” Burzynska added.
Meanwhile, Thomas was the recipient of 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.
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