Lia Thomas won the NCAA women’s swimming title in the 2021-2022 academic year. Thomas, who was a poor swimmer on the men’s team for many years, realized that he was transgender one day. He joined the women’s swim team and began setting records against his female teammates.
Riley Gaines a former teammate of Thomas, now calls for changes to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia. We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room, we turned around and there’s a 6’4″ biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia,” Gaines said.
Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American, five-time SEC Champion and record holder, and two-time Olympic trial qualifier, is now pushing the NCAA to require separate locker rooms for transgender athletes because what felt worse to her than a biological male competing with biological women was the humiliation and violation of sharing private single-sex spaces with Thomas.
Gaines stated, “That to my mind was even worse than the piece in the competition.” “This would have been sexual assault or voyeurism one year ago, but it is not now. It almost seems like these large organizations encourage it.”
Gaines is the spokesperson for the Independent Women’s Forum. She claims that the NCAA is a champion of transgender athletes at any cost to women’s sports.
“People are afraid, especially when you consider my experiences swimming with other NCAA swimmers,” Gaines also said, “they will not be admitted to graduate school if Gaines speaks up. ”
They will be called bigots and hateful, as well as transphobic. It doesn’t mean that you must accept the existence of two genders and that women have the right to succeed.
