There is much more to the story of “Lia” Thomas and women’s swimming at the University of Pennsylvania than the unfairness of his physical superiority. The Washington Examiner reported that the university failed to follow through on its promise to make Thomas, the male claiming to be a female, dress in separate quarters.
An anonymous father of a woman on the team said that when Thomas claimed he had made a transgender identity switch, women’s team members were told “she” would have “her” own separate locker room. “For some reason, that obviously changed. I’m not sure why it changed,” the father said. The separate locker room arrangement never happened, and Thomas – sporting a full male anatomy – shared locker room space with the women all season.
Penn refused to listen to female swimmers’ complaints about the shared locker room. School officials basically told them to shut up and deal with it.
The anonymous father who spoke to the Washington Examiner speculated the university may have feared legal threats and potential legal costs, and so it sided with Thomas over the women. The ACLU often sues those who cross LGBT interests, and lawsuits are expensive.
Thomas flaunted his male gender in the locker room, further alarming teammates. One anonymous swimmer told Daily Mail that Thomas “still has male body parts and is still attracted to women.”
The father said of his daughter, “I can’t say she’s been traumatized, but there was definitely a breach of trust and a failure on the part of Penn to protect her. Regarding Lia in the locker room, Penn told any female swimmers who had issues to essentially ‘get over it.’ They can’t ostracize Lia.”
Christopher Tremoglie, a commentary fellow with the Examiner, said, “While it is important to protect the sanctity of competition in women’s sports, it is equally important to make sure young women aren’t traumatized by being forced to see naked male genitalia in an area that is supposed to be a safe space.”
A Penn swimmer said team members raised the uncomfortable locker room situation to university officials numerous times. “But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.”
This is “a sad state of affairs” when universities lie to parents while accommodating transgender students, Tremoglie commented.:
The University of Pennsylvania prioritized one person suffering from gender dysphoria over its female students — and their parents, who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition. Universities are supposed to protect students — all of their students, not just those who have been elevated to a protected class resulting from a warped and misguided sense of social justice.
Despite its one-sided attempts to address the controversy, Penn, nevertheless, is facing legal trouble. Last week, Concerned Women For America sued Penn for allowing Thomas to compete on the women’s swim team.
The indefensible locker room arrangements at Penn are exactly why several states attempted to pass bathroom bills in recent years. Women and girls should not have to share facilities with men. Or with men pretending to be women.
