OPINION:
If Lia (born Will) Thomas were not the self-absorbed narcissist that from all indications (s)he appears to be, the transgender “woman” would do the right thing and bow out of the NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving championships, which begin Thursday in Atlanta.
Sixteen real (that is to say, biological) female teammates of Thomas on the University of Pennsylvania Quakers women’s swim team had hoped revised NCAA transgender policies would render Thomas ineligible to participate in the tournament.
They wrote an unsigned letter in early February to University of Pennsylvania and Ivy League officials urging them not to appeal such a ruling should it go against Thomas.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman,” the letter read in part. “… However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity.”
That obvious recognition nonetheless has eluded woke collegiate athletic departments, interscholastic athletic associations and the NCAA, all of which have effectively sacrificed real female athletes on the altar of a mindless, indiscriminate pursuit of the far left’s notions of diversity, equity and inclusion.
In so doing, they ignore the issue of the denial of competitive opportunities for real women, to say nothing of the unfairness of it all. (The progressive left’s all-consuming concern for “fairness” is inexplicably MIA here.)
And so, Thomas won’t be barred from participating in the NCAA Division I women’s swimming championships over the next four days, and in all probability will win the three events — the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyles — (s)he’s entered in.
That will come on the heels of a December tournament in Akron, Ohio, in which (s)he set the nation’s women’s best time in the 200-yard freestyle, broke the Ivy League record in the 500-yard freestyle and won the 1,650-yard freestyle over one of his real-female Quaker teammates by a whopping 38 seconds (in a sport where victory margins are typically measured in tenths of a second).
“Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female,” noted the letter sent on behalf of the 16 UPenn female swimmers by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a 1984 Olympic gold medal swimmer and the CEO of Champion Women, a women’s sports advocacy group.
Thomas’ 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 “woman” thoroughly demolishes the LBGTQ lobby’s preposterous assertion that there’s “no scientific evidence” that transgender “women” (aka biological men) have substantial physiological advantages in athletic competition — testosterone-suppressing drugs notwithstanding.
The 16 UPenn female letter writers chose to remain anonymous out of a very real fear of retaliation — not only from intolerant leftist “doxxers,” but also from school officials, who they feared would remove them from the team if they spoke out against Thomas’ inclusion in women’s competition.
As an aside, the Daily Mail of London reported that Thomas uses the women’s locker room, causing discomfort among his real-female teammates when disrobing, displaying his/her still-intact manhood. Their complaints about that have also gone unheeded by school officials.
“It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel,” one unidentified female swimmer told the newspaper. “The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.”
Under those circumstances, it’s entirely understandable the 16 would want to remain anonymous. But they should not allow themselves to be intimidated when they’re clearly on the right side of this issue.
They should not only “come out” and go on the record, but also threaten to boycott the NCAA championships en masse if the destruction of women’s 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 — or to show himself/herself to be a totally selfish egotist if (s)he won’t.
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