Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas Promises To Stand Up For Fellow Trans Athletes
Thomas had some inspiring words for trans youth during HiTOPS’ annual forum last week.
Lia Thomas, the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I National Championship, publicly spoke about transgender inclusion in sports for the first time this year at HiTOPS’ annual Trans Youth Forum on March 29.
HiTOPS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering LGBTQ+ youth on sex education, social support, and creating inclusive environments throughout New Jersey, featured Thomas as a special guest speaker.
The moderated discussion focused on her identity and experience as transgender woman, where she later talked about her experience as a swimmer and emphasized the importance of transgender representation in athletics.
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“It has to be the athletes deciding for themselves where they feel most affirmed and most comfortable,” she said, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Having routes that are safe and nondiscriminatory that allow them access to that [is important].”
This conversation took place in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. The result of this executive order caused the NCAA to quickly change its transgender participation policy and bar transgender athletes from women’s sports.
On March 19, the Trump administration froze over $175 million of the University of Pennsylvania’s federal funding, and wrongfully blamed Thomas for this, saying “The University is still at risk of losing all its federal funding, as a result of the ongoing Title IX investigations looking into Penn for allowing transgender athlete and biological male Lia Thomas to compete on the women’s swim team, use women’s locker rooms while exposing his male genitalia to his fellow female athletes”
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During her four years at Penn, Thomas competed on the swim and diving team. After her transition, she competed in the 2021-2022 season on the women’s team, where she became a target of consistent transphobic hate. “I still remember my first time scrolling through social media and seeing my face on someone else’s feed or someone else’s post, just talking about me and feeling confused,” she said. “Because, on a conceptual level, I knew what was happening, but on a personal level, I feel like I was just another college woman competing.”
During the summer of 2024, at the same time as the 2024 US Olympic trials, she lost a legal battle challenging a ban established by World Aquatics in 2022 prohibiting transgender women from competing in the highest level of swimming. This made her unable to participate in the month’s qualifying trials to compete in the Olympics.
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While Thomas has dealt with a number of attacks, including the federal government’s blatant misgendering and fearmongering, she committed herself to continuing to advocate for trans athletes. “I felt so devastated and [felt] grief over losing this access to my sport,” she said at the forum. “There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to fight this, that this is my sport too, and I’m not just gonna give it up to trans folks.”
