Lia Thomas has defended her triumphs over biologically female competitors. She claps back at what she sees as fake feminists who want to ‘police women’s bodies.’
Lia Thomas, declined all interview requests during the NCAA swimming and diving championships in Atlanta in March, found herself at the center of a national debate over who gets to compete in women’s sports.
She joined Schuyler Bailar on the podcast “Dear Schuyler” to discuss the controversy around allowing trans-female athletes to compete on women’s sports teams.
Thomas who was the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship, accused women in such category of being transphobes who are “using the guise of feminism” to hide their true, hateful belief.
Lia Thomas seemed gleeful and showed no remorse about beating biologically female athletes, despite constant criticism by her former competitor, Riley Gaines. She become more of an activist for transgender athletes. Lia even went on to send out a filming her own video in support of a measure that would prohibit any bans on trans competitors.
Lia said in her interview with Bailar, she is ‘proud of my accomplishments,’ and claimed that as a transgender athlete, ‘we’re almost not allowed to celebrate our accomplishments.’ ‘I felt I didn’t want to invite any more negativity,’ she said of her decision to not speak out about her victory in the past, ‘but I think trans women should be celebrated.’
‘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. And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half-support.
Thomas graduated from Penn earlier this month and will be attending law school in the fall. She plans to focus on civil rights and public interest law.
“Having seen such hateful attacks on trans rights through legislation, fighting for trans rights and trans equality is something that I’ve become much more passionate about and want to pursue,” she said.
When Lia was asked whether she would do it all over again, even after all the criticism she has received, she paused then responded.
“I would say yes. I’ve been able to do the sport that I love as my authentic self.”
