As evidenced by her rankings
Men stealing women’s athletic prizes – cool, or no?
Less than two days after several members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team released a letter in support of Lia Thomas, 16 team members and their families responded with a letter of their own. This letter, directed to the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League, requested that school and conference do not engage in litigation following USA Swimming’s release of its new transgender-inclusion policy.
The letter was sent to the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League by three-time Olympic champion Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who is the CEO of Champion Women. Hogshead-Makar has been a longtime advocate of women’s rights and has fought for equal opportunity for women’s athletes. During the Lia Thomas debate, Hogshead-Makar has repeatedly noted the unfair advantages of Thomas as a transgender woman when competing against biological females.
So there’s disagreement among the swimmers about the fairness of Lia Thomas’s con game.
We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically.
Or to put it another way, we don’t care what Thomas does with his “gender” in his private life.
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. 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. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.
I will never understand why the grotesque unfairness of this isn’t so blindingly obvious to everyone that it just can’t get off the ground.
We have dedicated our lives to swimming. Most of us started the same time Lia did, as pre-teens. We have trained up to 20 hours a week, swimming miles, running and lifting weights. To be sidelined or beaten by someone competing with the strength, height, and lung capacity advantages that can only come with male puberty has been exceedingly difficult.
Because it’s so unfair, and so obviously unfair, yet grown-ass adults are forcing it on us. Exceedingly difficult indeed.
We have been told that if we spoke out against her inclusion into women’s competitions, that we would be removed from the team or that we would never get a job offer. When media have tried to reach out to us, these journalists have been told that the coaches and athletes were prohibited from talking to them. We support Lia’s mental health, and we ask Penn and the Ivy League to support ours as well.
You know, from the outside, Lia’s mental health looks pretty damn robust. He seems very cheerful, not to say triumphant and smug.
Yes, it’s an interesting contrast with “Elliott” Page, where the mental health issues are evident. I do know that it is possible for people to be mentally ill without appearing that way; It’s possible “Lia” has mental health issues, but if so she hides them well.
Willy is not a she, he is a he. Mental issues or no, if my daughter was on the Penn swim team, doing nothing would not be an option. I don’t know how the fathers of these girls can be such cream puffs. I’d be in jail by now.
The team is for females only, the ideas in his head are vapour next to that. Gender identity is about as relevant to competitive fairness as hair colour.
iknklast @ 1 – Right, that’s why I said “from the outside” and “looks” and “seems” – caution caution caution. I realize it can all be different underneath.
My guess, though, is that he’s having a hell of a good time.
My sister and I were swimmers in high school and while I was good enough to snag a few third places on the boys team, my sister won several races. I was faster than her, but she really was a better athlete than I was. So for me, allowing a male to swim on the female team is just putting a male’s selfish desires ahead of what’s fair for females.
This is a lie, since fully supporting Lia’s decision would include letting Lia swim on the women’s team — which, if they fully believe Lia has transitioned from a man to a woman, would be a given.
But you can’t “partially” support someone’s gender identity being affirmed. Not in the sort of climate which requires this cringing, fawning acknowledgment of support, you can’t. Thus, a lie which will easily be noted as a lie.
Not a lie, because “to transition from a man to a woman” doesn’t have a precise, universally-agreed meaning. It’s more of a slogan than a precise label for anything. You can fully support William’s “transition” as you understand it, without necessarily supporting what William understands by it. In general that’s one of the many infuriating things about the ideology, but here it means I don’t agree that they’re lying.