After ranking as low as 554th place in the NCAA when competing as a man, Lia Thomas became a champion in the women’s league after coming out as transgender. As such, a growing number of feminists have used the case as evidence that biological men should not be allowed to compete against biological females in gender-specific athletic events.
Whereas feminism was once defined as a movement aimed at ensuring equal opportunities for women, trans activists now claim that those who want to preserve a safe and competitive arena for female athletes are actually “anti-feminist.”
That narrative received a prominent platform this week when Thomas joined podcast host Schuyler Bailar — also a transgender swimmer — to discuss the issue of allowing men who identify as women to dominate women’s sports.
Thomas asserted that even those who defend and promote the trans agenda are not going far enough.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, we respect Lia, as a woman, as a trans woman or whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair,’” Thomas said. “You can’t really have that sort of half-support where you’re like, ‘Oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.’”
Furthermore, the swimmer asserted that those who oppose allowing biological men to compete against females are “using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs,” adding: “I think a lot of people in that camp sort of carry an implicit bias against trans people, but don’t want to, I guess, fully manifest or speak that out. And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half-support.”
Bailar took the rhetoric even further by claiming that such individuals employ “twisted feminism” to make their case.
“In order to exclude anybody in the trans category, you have to reduce women to reproductive capacity, which is, in my opinion, extremely anti-feminist,” Bailar complained.
Thomas has also expressed the opinion that even the radically pro-trans Biden administration has not done enough to erase the biological distinction between males and females. The statement drew widespread criticism, including from Riley Gaines, the swimmer who lost to Thomas and has since been an outspoken advocate for excluding trans athletes from women’s sports.
Under the guise of competitive fairness? Are you really trying to say you would have won a national title against the men? Does it not break your heart to see women lose out on these opportunities?
The Biden Admins proposed bill denies science, truth, and common sense pic.twitter.com/gsJfsic1eZ
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 18, 2023
Gaines subsequently shared her unvarnished opinion of Thomas, tweeting: “Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman.”
