Transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas is smashing women’s records in the sport, and her teammates are so upset that they considered boycotting, but are afraid of being accused of transphobia.
Members of the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania were thinking about protesting Thomas’ participation in the sport by sitting out their final home meet against Dartmouth College on Jan. 8.
“They’ve been ignored by both Penn and the NCAA, and there is a feeling among some of the girls that they should make some sort of statement, seize the opportunity while they have a spotlight on them to make their feelings about the issue known,” said a source.
Ultimately they decided against boycotting, as they’re worried the protest will come off as transphobic and jeopardize their participation in the Ivy League championships, where the team’s top 17 swimmers will compete in February.
Former NCAA All-American swimmer Jeri Shanteau is worried the inclusion of trans athletes in competitions will destroy women’s sports.
“What you see right now in women’s athletics is going to be the extinction of women’s sports in general,” said the 11-time All-American. “We need people to understand this is a complete discrimination of women, and what is happening that we do not have our institutions and our universities and our governing bodies standing by watching this unfold is complete neglect.”
Cynthia Millen, a USA Swimming official, recently resigned from her post over the issue.
“The fact is that swimming is a sport in which bodies compete against bodies. Identities do not compete against identities,” Millen remarked. “Men are different from women, men swimmers are different from women, and they will always be faster than women.”
“I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport that allows biological men to compete against women,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed.”
“All these women who worked so hard before Title IX when they didn’t have the opportunities that men had,” Millen told Tucker Carlson. “It would be such a shame, such a travesty to throw it away now. This is what will happen.”
wpDiscuz
are afraid of being accused of transphobia? boycott it!! It’s a Man swimming as a woman!