Transgender swimmer Leah Thomas has hit back at women who don’t want her to compete in women’s sports, claiming they’re too afraid to fully ‘show’ their implicit bias and play it as half-support.
The former University of Pennsylvania player joined NCAA senior transgender swimmer Schuyler Pillar on his podcast Dear Schuyler on Monday to discuss the divide over whether or not transgender female athletes should be on women’s sports teams.
Thomas, who has received numerous criticisms throughout the swimsuit season, has called her former colleagues and critics bogus feminists who push transphobic values under the guise of being “women-supportive”.
They’re like: “Oh, we respect Leah as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever, we respect who she is, we just don’t think it’s fair.”
You really can’t have that half of the support. Like I respect you as a woman here, but not here,” the NCAA gold medalist said in a promotional clip for the podcast, posted to Instagram.
They use the guise of feminism to push transphobic beliefs. I think a lot of people in this camp hold an implicit prejudice against trans people, but they don’t want, I think, to fully show it or talk about it. And so they try to play him as this kind of half-support.
“You can’t do that. You can’t kind of break me as a person to bits.”
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Leah Thomas, who has received numerous criticisms throughout the swimsuit season, has described her former colleagues and critics as pseudo-feminists pushing transphobic values under the guise of being “women-supportive.”
Pilar agreed with the controversial player, saying, “They come from… this whole ‘protecting women’s sport’ (which) has become a very big movement and they’re doing it under the guise of feminism.” Oh, we’re just feminists, we’re just fighting for Women,” and whenever anyone says I’m always (like): “Well, you’re fighting for women by excluding women, so this isn’t fighting for women. ”
The athletes discussed how black women have faced the same criticism that trans women are now facing, saying that people “don’t want a woman who doesn’t look like you maybe or doesn’t fit your female version of you to win.”
Pilar went on to say that feminism had become “twisted” and “turned into the exclusion of women” and reduced them to “reproductive capacity”.
At the end of the day, everyone’s trying — under true feminism — everyone’s trying to come together to kind of break down these patriarchal ideals of what a woman is and who a woman can be and kind of open that up to the very wide range of possibilities that exist,” Thomas said.
The parents of Thomas’ teammates wrote a letter in December to the NCAA, asking it to change the rules allowing young transgender athletes to compete, declaring that “the integrity of women’s sports is at stake here.”
One of Thomas’ biggest critics is former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, and she recently asked a fellow competitor if she felt upset about seeing women lose out on opportunities to transgender women.
Transgender swimmer Leah Thomas and Riley Gaines share the stage at the NCAA meet
“The integrity of women’s sport is at stake here,” they wrote in the letter, which we obtained exclusively from DailyMail.com. The precedent being set – a precedent in which women do not have a protected and equitable space to compete – poses a direct threat to female athletes in every sport. What are the limits? How does this align with the NCAA’s commitment to providing a fair environment for student-athletes?
“It is the responsibility of the NCAA to address the matter with an official statement,” the parents continue. As the governing body, it is unfair and irresponsible to leave the responsibility on Lea, his teammates, the Lea coaches, UPenn athletics, and the Ivy League. And it is unfair and irresponsible for Lia to allow the media to dictate the narrative without the NCAA’s involvement.
One of Thomas’ biggest critics is former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who recently asked a fellow competitor if she felt upset about seeing women lose out on opportunities to transgender women.
Leah Thomas was quoted as saying, you know, “It breaks my heart to see trans kids miss out on opportunities.” Replace that with the word woman – does it still break Thomas’ heart to see women miss out on opportunities? Gaines asked about the letter Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Thomas said that a “real feminist” would work for “everyone to come together to break these patriarchal ideals of what it is to be a woman.”
Earlier this month, Gaines also called Thomas selfish and said she showed a “total disregard for women” after the transgender swimmer, who competed as a man for three years, begged President Joe Biden to protect trans athletes.
Jaynes tweeted, “This photo is selfish and shows a complete disregard for women.” The Biden administration is working aggressively to pass laws that erase decent and fair treatment of women in sports.
Gaines was upset after Thomas appeared in a video criticizing Biden’s proposal to change the existing Title IX civil rights law, which bans sex discrimination in schools.
She said that transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in school competitions without exception.
Biden’s planned change prohibits schools from imposing blanket banks on transgender athletes in kindergarten through eighth grade.
In the roughly 90-second clip, Thomas says the administration’s rule doesn’t go far enough in protecting transgender athletes.
Thomas’ teammates and parents wrote a letter in December to the NCAA, asking it to change the rules that allowed the young transgender athlete to compete, declaring that “the integrity of women’s sports is at stake here.”
The bill, an amendment to Title IX — the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex — would prevent states from enacting blanket bans on transgender athletes who compete against their non-biological gender in grades K-8.
However, it wouldn’t prevent this kind of ban against older trans athletes, who are in high school and college.
Thomas, who competed on the University of Pennsylvania men’s swim team before beginning her transition and entering girls’ locker rooms, says in the video that protections against transgender athletes should extend beyond middle school.
Thomas said the proposed rule is “a good start” but “not enough”.
This rule is a good start. However, this is not enough. During this time of intense backlash against transgender people, Thomas said, the trans community needs explicit protection from discrimination in order for us to live our lives freely and equally.
All trans children deserve the opportunity to compete and play in the sports they love without compromising their identity.
The national swimming champion, who was wearing a tank top that read “Transgender athletes belong to the sport” in the video, encourages others to urge the Biden administration to amend the rule to include all transgender athletes, regardless of their age.
