Lia Thomas blasts teammates as ‘fake’ feminists over perceived lack of support
Brady Knox
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Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas bashed the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, accusing it of failing to provide proper support.
Thomas made a number of fiery comments in an appearance on the Dear Schuyler podcast, hosted by another transgender athlete, Schuyler Bailar. The controversial swimmer bashed the women’s swim team as having “implicit bias against trans people” and only offering “half-support.”
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“They’re like, ‘Oh, we respect Lia as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair,'” Thomas said. “You can’t really have that half-support. Like, ‘I respect you as a woman here, but not here.'”
“They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs. 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,” the swimmer added. “And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half-support.”
Bailar claimed that people who argue biological men shouldn’t compete in women’s sports are rejecting science and reusing past arguments from people who said it wasn’t fair for black women to compete in white women’s sports because they looked different. Thomas agreed with both statements.
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Former championship swimmer-turned-women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines hit back at Thomas’s comments in a statement to the Washington Examiner, accusing the swimmer of trying to “gaslight” women.
“I take issue with the idea that strong, brave women are fake feminists. We are fighting for our right to privacy, safety, and fairness, as well as the essence of Title IX rights,” she said. “In this podcast, Lia Thomas attempted to gaslight women for feeling uncomfortable with men taking our spots on the podium, taking our titles, taking our scholarships, and taking away our opportunities. It’s selfish, and it’s wrong. I encourage women across America to join me in this fundamental fight for the right to be a woman.”