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In another kick in the teeth to females everywhere, ESPN honored transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in its Women’s History Month tribute.
Why not? Why should its choice be an actual woman?
Last week USA Today announced their Women of the Year and a man who identifies as female was among the honorees.
Earlier this month, the White House gave the Women of Courage Award to a man who also identifies as female.
Thomas is a male swimmer who began identifying as a female a few years ago. He was allowed to swim in the NCAA women’s division in the 500-yard freestyle and wrecked his female opponents.
Following the release of ESPN’s video tribute to Lia Thomas, Outkick’s David Hookstead tweeted the video with the caption, “ESPN celebrated Women’s History Month by promoting a special about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas……a biological male who destroyed real women in the pool.”
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has been quite vocal about the unfairness to female athletes, replied to Hookstead’s tweet.
Gaines wrote, “Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman. The @ncaa is responsible.
“If I was a woman working at ESPN, I would walk out. You’re spineless @espn #boycottESPN”
Gaines competed against Thomas, who swam for the University of Pennsylvania, in the NCAA championships last year and described how she felt about the experience.
She said, “I felt like I was going into the race with my hands tied behind my back.”
Thomas has been quoted as saying that he’s not trans by choice. He said, “I didn’t have any other choice because not transitioning was not getting me anywhere.”
People have insinuated that he transitioned so he could win in swim competitions. He says he transitioned “to be happy.”
Gaines appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last April to discuss the situation.
“Whether they have different lung capacities, their height, testosterone levels whether they’ve used testosterone blockers or not — it doesn’t suppress going through puberty as a male. Especially Lia, who swam for three years as a male,” Gaines said.
“Lia Thomas has shown extreme selfishness and a major lack of awareness — and just an utter disregard for women.”
The female swimmer said this is part of a “wider problem in society.”
“We’re watching the denial of the most basic of truths,” she said.
“When you can’t acknowledge what a woman is, there’s a huge problem.
“This is deeper than just sports. This is a systematic erasure of what a woman is.”
Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, invited Gaines to introduce a bill ensuring that men stay out of women’s sports.
She described what it was like for her and the other female athletes when Thomas was allowed to compete in the women’s competition.
“We as female athletes sat on the side of the pool deck, watching that first day as Thomas beat out American record holders, Olympians, the most impressive female swimmers in the country, to win a national title when just the year before was ranking in the 400s as a male at best.”
It makes one wonder…did he transition to rank higher in swimming? According to the Daily Mail, Thomas’ goal was to try out for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
New rules requiring trans athletes to have transitioned before age 12 will keep Thomas out of the Olympics.
