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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 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 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 pick and 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 judge and pick and choose when I see them as women’.”
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Transgender athlete Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania 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 answer when asked how the athlete would approach people who are not against transgender rights, but who support the protection of women’s sports against 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 just don’t compete in women’s sports’ is both 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 a clever 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 extent 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 high testosterone conditions at puberty while maintaining the male musculoskeletal advantage.”
Thomas also opened up about being in a relationship with a woman before he made the decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Thomas recalled the moment in the summer of 2018 when the former collegiate swimmer openly admitted “I’m trans” for the first time.
“Me and my girlfriend at the time were living on campus to take a summer class. She was and continues to be a very staunch queer ally. And she invited me to go with her to a pride parade as an ally to support. And as a closet trans woman, I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely I’d 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 might have been the first time I said ‘I’m trans’ out loud. And it was a very big milestone and she was incredibly supportive.”
Thomas lined up for the UPenn women’s swim team in 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, earn three All-America honors at the NCAA Championships and was named the High Point Swimmer of the Meet 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 experiences sharing the pool and locker room with Thomas.
Former University of Kentucky swimmer and OutKick host Riley Gaines was infamously linked to Thomas at the NCAA Championships that year, and went on to file 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 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 earlier decisions to dismiss on September 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.
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 been waiting for 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 swimming team in 2021.
“I thought it must be horrible to feel like you’re trapped in the wrong body. Just be so out of touch with who you really are,” Burzynska previously told Pakinomist Digital. “You have these issues that are far away and you never quite think they’re going to touch you personally until you’re on a team with Lia Thomas and your closet is right next to this biological man. And you never would have thought 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 becomes more, ‘OK, that’s 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 boats Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Football Club, among others.
