Will Thomas, known now as ‘Lia’ did and interview with SportsIllustrated where insisted, “I’m a woman, just like anybody else on the team’ but there’s just one problem… He’s not. Thomas currently benefits from a biological edge he has over the female swimmers and that edge is that he’s spent most of his life as a male. On top of that, several Upenn swimmers have claimed that Thomas often talks about dating women and alleged that he still has his ‘male parts’.
“I’m a woman, so I belong on the women’s team. Trans people deserve that same respect every other athlete gets,” Thomas told the magazine. He had previously only spoken publicly to swimming-news website SwimSwam, claiming swimming is not about winning or setting records: “I get into the water every day and do my best.”
He then went on to deny claims made by the female swimmers that he often jokes about how easier they are to beat.
It should be noted that of the 37 swimmers only a handful reportedly support Thomas being on the team. Some of whom might just be too afraid to speak up.
People who have spoken up against a man competing against women in their own league have been labeled ‘bigots’ and ‘trans phobic’ but take a moment to read what one parent told the magazine and tell me if it sounds like ‘hate speech to you:
“We support Lia as a trans woman and hope she leads a happy and productive life, because that’s what she deserves,” one parent of a Penn swimmer says. “What we can’t do is stand by while she rewrites records and eliminates biological women from this sport. If we don’t speak up here, it’s going to happen in college after college. And then women’s sports, as we know it, will no longer exist in this country.”