A former Harvard swimmer has criticized the Biden administration for using the debate over trans athletes as “their civil rights moment” at the expense of female athletes.
Abby Carr said they thought it would save transgender sports, but argued it was “discrimination against women”.
The former Harvard athlete, who competed and lost to trans athlete Lia Thomas last year, shared her thoughts on the ongoing debate over Fox Business ‘Varney&Co.’
Thomas sparked controversy at the 2022 NCAA Championships by becoming the first-ever transgender winner.
“I think the Biden administration, quite frankly, is trying to have its civil rights moment,” she said. “They’re trying to make it their goal of civil rights activism is that they’re going to save transgender sports. However, they do so by discriminating against women.
Carr is just one of many female athletes, including former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who is speaking out on the debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Former Harvard swimmer Abby Carr has slammed the Biden administration for using the debate over transgender athletes as ‘their civil rights moment’ at the expense of female athletes
Lia Thomas (pictured) caused controversy at the 2022 NCAA Championships by becoming the first-ever transgender winner. She beat Carr’s team – which included Riley Gaines (right)
“What should unfortunately only be a blunt scientific reality determining sporting issue has become so politicized that we can’t even have a rational conversation about it,” Carr said.
Carr went on to call on the administration to “dismiss actual stories of female athletes” and “not protect women.”
“It’s interesting to see the Biden administration putting aside those narratives, those real-life stories of female athletes like Riley Gaines and others that we’re seeing now across the country,” Carr said. “They are clearly not protecting women’s sport.”
“I talked about it a few weeks ago, and I said something to the effect of my you know, my track and field journey has been high-profile and formative, but I shouldn’t have to run bucks biological. I’ll even use the terminology that the left wants – male assigned at birth. I shouldn’t have to raise someone that way because it’s just not fair. And yet it’s become so politicized that we can’t even have these open and honest conversations.
Carr also explained how his team — which included Gaines — competed and lost to Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Championships.
‘My team ran against Thomas [in] 2022 and she won. She won pretty much everything she swam,” Carr said. “At the time, we were advised to keep quiet just to focus on our own races, really just to focus on winning our own Ivy Championship.”
“In reflection, it was completely out of place. Thomas clearly had the biological advantage in every race she entered.
Thomas got candid about letting transgender athletes participate in sports
One of Thomas’ biggest critics is former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines.
Thomas, who competed for the University of Pennsylvania men’s swim team before beginning his transition, opened up about his decision to become a trans woman.
She said she had always loved swimming and started swimming competitively when she was 5 years old. But when she realized she was transgender before her freshman year at college, she said, “My relationship with water changed.”
She said she felt uncomfortable having her body “in plain sight” and felt trapped in a “very dark, unpleasant place” before deciding to take hormones.
One of Thomas’s biggest critics is former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who recently asked his competitor if it breaks her heart to see women losing opportunities to transgender women.
Gaines also called Thomas “selfish” and said she showed “complete disregard for women” after the transgender swimmer, who competed as a man for three years, begged Biden to protect trans-athletes in sport.
Gaines tweeted, “This take is selfish and shows complete disregard for women. The Biden administration is actively and aggressively working to pass laws that erase decent and fair treatment for women in sport.
The bill, which is an amendment to Title IX — the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sex — would prohibit states from blanket bans on transgender athletes competing against their non-biological sex from the kindergarten to 8th grade.
However, that wouldn’t preclude these kinds of bans on older trans athletes who attend high school and college.
