Should Trans Athletes Compete in Womenâs Sports?
Image: Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports
UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas became the first trans athlete to win a D1 national championship in any sport after placing first in the womenâs individual 500-yard freestyle on Thursday. She finished fifth and eighth in her two other events.
đ Background: Thomas swam for the UPenn menâs team for two seasons before coming out as trans, beginning hormone therapy treatment in the summer of 2019.
- She competed on the menâs team as a female the following season, but sparingly.
- After fulfilling an NCAA requirement that trans female athletes undergo hormone replacement therapy for at least 12 months, Thomas swam for Pennâs womenâs team this past season.
đ„ Internal response... After reports of anonymous critical comments attributed to Thomasâ teammates, Penn athletics issued an unsigned statement last month on behalf of "several membersâ of the womenâs swimming and diving team who supported Thomas being on the squad.
- Days later, Olympic gold medalist and Title IX advocate Nancy Hogshead-Makar sent a letter on behalf of 16 anonymous Penn swimmers in support of new rules that would have barred Thomas from competing.
đ What new rules?⊠In January, the NCAA said it would shift its guidelines on transgender participation so that by the 2023-24 season, each sport follows regulations established by their individual governing bodies.
- Soon after, USA Swimming announced a new set of rules for trans swimmers seeking to compete in womenâs events that effectively raises the length of time required for transition from one year to three.
đșđž Zoom out: Over the past two years, nearly a dozen GOP-led states have passed laws banning trans women and girls from participating in womenâs sports.
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Sprinkles from the Left
- 55% of Democrats say trans athletes should play on teams that match their gender identity
- 41% say trans athletes should play on teams that match their birth gender
Source â (Gallup)
Perhaps the most notable statement that has been made thus far came from Stanfordâs Brooke Forde, who has won multiple NCAA championships and a silver medal in Tokyo.
âI have great respect for Lia,â Forde wrote in January. âSocial change is always a slow and difficult process and we rarely get it correct right away. Being among the first to lead such a social change requires an enormous amount of courage⊠in 2020, I along with most swimmers, experienced what it was like to have my chance to achieve my swimming goals taken away after years of hard work. I would not wish this experience on anyone, especially Lia, who has followed the rules required of her. I believe that treating people with respect and dignity is more important than any trophy or record will ever be, which is why I will not have a problem racing against Lia at NCAAs this year.â
[But] it's understandable that some competitors would feel threatened by Thomasâ rapid rise from a middling collegiate swimmer as a man to the top of the sport as a woman. We know that Thomas would have had athletic advantages over women for most of her life. What we donât know very much about is how those advantages change for men transitioning to women or what is necessary to ensure fair competition [since there are so few studies]âŠ
If the circus surrounding Thomas proves anything, it's that this issue requires a delicate, measured, science-based conversation. Unfortunately, the loudest voices are fueled only by emotion.
With a few exceptions, such as former Olympian Nancy Hogshead-Makar, almost no one is willing to publicly question whether it is fair to let Thomas compete in womenâs divisions, given the clear advantages she seems to have retained from going through male puberty. They are too afraid of losing friends, jobs or educational opportunities by seeming anything less than maximally supportive of trans inclusion. Even conversations I had about the technical details of meets took place on deep background, and after one father spoke to reporter Suzy Weiss on the record, his wife frantically contacted Weiss, begging her not to ruin their daughterâs life by printing his name.
After all my reporting, I am still pondering the seemingly ineradicable tension between the desire for inclusion and the biological reasons we established sporting leagues for men and women in the first place. But I am quite sure of one thing: This is not the kind of atmosphere that makes for good decisions, or healthy societies.
A decent and just society would definitely not try to âsolveâ the problem by using social media to bully Thomas out of the pool. But neither would it write out of the story all of the other people who made grueling sacrifices to get there.
Sprinkles from the Right
- 10% of Republicans say trans athletes should play on teams that match their gender identity
- 86% of Republicans say trans athletes should play on teams that match their birth gender
Source â (Gallup)
If Lia (born Will) Thomas were not the self-absorbed narcissist that from all indications (s)he appears to be, the transgender âwomanâ would do the right thing and bow out of the NCAA Division I womenâs swimming and diving championships, which begin Thursday in AtlantaâŠ
Thomasâ instantly vaulting from a national ranking of No. 462 after competing for three undistinguished years as a man to No. 1 as a record-shattering âwomanâ thoroughly demolishes the LBGTQ lobbyâs preposterous assertion that thereâs âno scientific evidenceâ that transgender âwomenâ (aka biological men) have substantial physiological advantages in athletic competition â testosterone-suppressing drugs notwithstanding.
The 16 UPenn female letter writers chose to remain anonymous out of a very real fear of retaliation â not only from intolerant leftist âdoxxers,â but also from school officials, who they feared would remove them from the team if they spoke out against Thomasâ inclusion in womenâs competitionâŠ.
âItâs really upsetting because Lia doesnât seem to care how it makes anyone else feel,â one unidentified female swimmer told the newspaper. âThe 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.â
[The 16 anonymous Penn swimmers] should not only âcome outâ and go on the record, but also threaten to boycott the NCAA championships en masse if the destruction of womenâs sports by faux females is to be stopped in its tracks.
That would place the onus squarely where it belongs; namely, on Thomas to step aside for the sake of the team â or to show himself/herself to be a totally selfish egotist if (s)he wonât.
We all know, deep down, that thereâs something fundamental and real about being a man or a woman. We all know that it is fundamentally impossible for a man to be a woman or for a woman to be a man. While it is true that some people believe themselves to be other than what they are, that fact doesnât make their belief true. It isnât. And it isnât compassionate toward those individuals â let alone right for our society â to pretend otherwise.
Yet thatâs what our society has decided to do over the past few years⊠the unfairness and, in some cases the dangers, of this status quo have been evident for some time, but theyâve been brought into particular focus with the case of Lia Thomas, a biologically male college athlete who identifies as a woman and thus is permitted to compete on the female swim team at the University of Pennsylvania. Compete isnât quite the right word, as Thomas regularly blows the female athletes out of the waterâŠ.
The entire thing is a lie. We all know it. And the obvious injustice of Thomasâs [national championship] victory should bring the charade to an end.
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