Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022.
Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Thursday, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the championships in Atlanta. It documents a number of races they swam in with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth but Thomas, not Gaines, was handed the fifth-place trophy.
Thomas swam for Pennsylvania. She competed for the men’s team at Penn before her gender transition.
Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport, finishing in front of three Olympic medalists for the championship. By not making the final, the lawsuit mentions that Florida swimmer Tylor Mathieu, who was not a plaintiff, was denied first-team All-American honors in that event.
Other plaintiffs included athletes from volleyball and track.
If there's any real debate to be had, it's along the lines of male hormones and penises. Should either be present in a place which essentially only exists for the purpose of keeping those things out?
They are. Every sporting governing body I'm aware of requires trans women to be on hormone therapy for a minimum of 2 years before they can compete in the women's category. This is completely in line with the medical community's research into how long it takes before the benefits of being biologically male are counteracted by the hormone replacement.
The debate has been had in the medical community and has been resolved. Now random people who never gave a fuck about women's sports before think they should have input when they have no qualifications, just because they have prejudices.
Could be, but they would still be required to pass tests to prove their hormones are in the appropriate range, just like cis women have to do when tested for doping with testosterone.
I suspect this is the most common sentiment even though you don't see it as much online. People turn it into an attack on trans people, but that's not the goal. The fact is there's no shortage of straight cis men who would gladly use the women's changing room if they were allowed