Holy shit “Lia” Thomas has to give it all back. FINALEEEEEE!!!
The University of Pennsylvania says it will update records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by Thomas’ participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.
The U.S. Education Department and Penn announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when
sheHE became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.The department investigated Penn as part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, finding the college violated the rights of female athletes.
Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas and send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers, the Education Department said.
YESSSSSS.
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13 responses to “The rights of female athletes”
It’s nice to see some good news once in a while.
It is indeed.
Yes, good to see, but they weren’t so much “disadvantaged” as they were cheated, and lied to, with the connivance of all of those sporting bodies, officials, coaches, etc., who went along with this travesty. If they had any integrity, they would all resign; as it is, they should all be removed from their positions of authority and safeguarding of the female athletes under their charge and care, as they can, and should no longer, be trusted with this duty. This wasn’t an “error” or “mistake”, this was a deliberate decision by adults who should have known better, to infringe the rights of the women against whom they conspired. Add to that the combination of gaslighting and punishment if they resisted or spoke out.
The fact that there was gaslighting, and threats of punishment from on high at the school, proves that they knew what they were doing wasn’t above board.
The statement from the school is even more disgustingly patronizing than it comes across above. I think there’s a much more important story that’s being missed or ignored, one that should have been an even higher priority than sports records.
JFC; you let a MALE exhibitionist/voyeur loose on the women’s swim team. They weren’t experiencing “anxiety,” THEY WERE VICTIMS OF SEX CRIMES YOU ASSHOLES. Even if he didn’t touch them, his mere presence, as that of any other male would have been, was a criminal act, which you aided, abetted, and sanctioned. You forced this predatory male (and yes, he was a predator as soon as he stepped into any space intended for women only) on unwitting, unwilling women, and threatened the women with punishment if they resisted. Forget scrubbing Thomas’s ill-gotten records; that’s a sideshow in comparison. Heads should roll for the violation of the safety and dignity of the women who were victimized by Thomas and Penn State. Letting him go ahead and swim against women was just adding insult to sex crimes.
https://katv.com/news/nation-world/lia-thomas-exposed-male-genitalia-in-womens-locker-room-at-swim-meet-ex-swimmer-says
What’s there to cheer? This is just more of the UVA/Columbia/Harvard stuff. That fashy influencer gets her 4th place win. Lia Thomas will still continue to be a prick and I’ll still be tired of winning.
But William Thomas will be a prick without a medal.
His name shouldn’t be there at all. It would be like having an annotation for the 1988 Olympics results, saying “Until he was caught doping, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was the fastest runner in the 100m.”
The women Thomas cheated against should get a public ceremony to receive the medals they should have been awarded originally. They shouldn’t be getting them in the mail. I know, baby steps, but these weren’t babies acting abominably, these were adults who violated the trust of the women under their charge. They shouldn’t be getting off the hook so lightly.
Yer damn right.
I suspect schools were driven by not only the loud, flashy trans lobbyists, but also by the prospect of never losing games. Coaches who win keep their multi-million dollar positions (though I don’t think coaches in women’s sport make as much; I’m feeling too lazy to check this morning). Schools get the glory of winning sports teams. Medals, trophies, and money are all powerful factors in deciding who is and isn’t a woman. I’d bet the farm on it.
I looked up this source material:
I see 3 things: (1) The words “male” and “female” appear extensively in both press releases, to explain the government case against UPenn in terms of sex discrimination; (2) The phrase “trans” does not appear in either press release; (3) The phrase “gender” appears only once, in the July 1 press release, to cite the Trump Executive Order 14168 (that he signed on his first day back in office, on Jan 20, 2025) about “Gender Ideology Extremism” (in my bolding below):
My 3 findings above — from the source material — contrast against every news article that I have read about the UPenn case. They all frame the UPenn case in terms of “trans” and “gender” and “transgender” athletes, as if those phrases refer to real things and people. In contrast, the Trump administration sees that “gender ideology” exists — the way I see that Catholicism exists (for example), but I do not use Catholic beliefs in my thinking, or as legal arguments. Trump the man aside, this legal strategy is strong, it is working, and I look forward to seeing more of it.
Excellent point.
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