Lia Thomas says he was 'devastated' over ban on men in women's swimming: 'It has to be the athletes deciding for themselves'



Former NCAA swimmer Lia (William) Thomas said athletes should be able to decide which gender category they compete in.

The former swimmer was infamously ranked 554th in the 200-yard freestyle for men before achieving fifth in the nation against women. Thomas was also the top-ranked swimmer in the country for the women's category for the 500-yard freestyle, with the distinct advantage of being a man.

Thomas was the keynote speaker at this year's HiTOPS Trans Youth Forum, a gender activist group aimed at children that describes its mission as "empowering youth with sex education, social support, and affirming communities."

During an hour-long session, Thomas claimed athletes should self-determine which gender category they compete in, implying that it could be discriminatory if done based on an athlete's actual biology.

"It has to be the athletes deciding for themselves where they feel most affirmed and most comfortable," Thomas said, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. "Having routes that are safe and non-discriminatory, that allow them access to that."

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, Thomas said he was "devastated" when World Aquatics barred transgender athletes from competing in elite events, including the Olympics.

"I felt so devastated and [felt] grief over losing this access to my sport," Thomas recalled. "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."

Lia Thomas (left) and Riley Gaines (right), March 18, 2022. Gaines became America's most recognizable advocate for female-only sports. Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

'I just wanted to step away and be able to transition and be myself.'

While at UPenn, Thomas explained that he felt declaring himself a woman might prevent his continued competitition in college athletics and claimed that he initially did not want to continue in sports.

"I looked up … the NCAA transgender policy [during freshman fall] and knew it might be technically possible. ... I didn't think that I could do it."

Thomas then said the idea of having to confront that he might not be able to compete as a woman contributed to his gender dysphoria, because he had to "pick one," either swimming or posing as a female.

"I didn't want to swim. I just wanted to step away and be able to transition and be myself," Thomas claimed. "But my love of swimming kept me going. ... When I had transitioned, I felt more comfortable, and I said, 'I can do this. I could do both.'"

The former swimmer said he felt more confusion seeing his name or image on social media as part of news stories, stating that he knew what was happening on "a conceptual level," but was still confused because "on a personal level," he felt he was "just another college woman competing."

The HiTOPS organization called for activism following President Trump's executive order to keep men out of women's sports. The group said the president does not support the "science and the lived experiences of trans people" because he allegedly wants to remove access to gender procedures and hormones to minors.

The group called the president cruel, ignorant, and guilty of intentionally marginalizing transgender people.

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Trump Admin Freezes $175 Million in Federal Funding to Penn Over Transgender Policies

The Trump administration has frozen $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over the school's inclusion of biological men in women's sports, according to a White House tweet Wednesday morning.

The post Trump Admin Freezes $175 Million in Federal Funding to Penn Over Transgender Policies appeared first on .

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‘Correct The Records’: Trump Administration Requests NCAA Strip Men Of Titles Stolen From Women

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Trump signs executive order preventing men from competing in women's sports: 'It's about time'



Gender ideology — with core claims that have not only been debunked but in many cases rejected by the majority of Americans — is on the ropes. President Donald Trump appears committed to delivering the knockout punch.

The 47th president, who promised in 2023 to bring an end to "left-wing gender insanity" upon taking office, signed an executive order Wednesday afternoon banning male transvestites from competing in girls' or women's sports.

"It's about time," said Trump. "Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls."

Trump noted that "men claiming to be girls have stolen more than 3,500 victories" and have "invaded more than 11,000 competitions designed for women."

Trump also indicated that he has instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make clear to the International Olympic Committee that America will no longer tolerate men in women's sports at home or abroad.

"From now on, women's sports will be only for women," added the president.

While LGBT activists and other radicals are incensed over the decision, Trump's order reflects the desire of the supermajority of Americans. A 2023 Gallup survey found that 69% of Americans wanted transvestites to play only on sports teams that corresponded with their actual sex.

'This commonsense action from President Trump ends the disgusting betrayal of women and girls by the previous administration.'

Dozens of states have already passed legislation banning transvestites from participating in sporting events intended for members of the opposite sex. Now, there's a strong likelihood the rest of the nation will fall in line.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated earlier in the day that the purpose of the order was to "defend the safety of athletes, protect competitive integrity, and uphold the promise of Title IX."

"This commonsense action from President Trump ends the disgusting betrayal of women and girls by the previous administration, who for years catered to radical activists who wanted biological males to be treated as women in workplace showers, competitive sports, prisons, and even rape shelters," continued Leavitt. "Gender ideology insanity is over."

The order is aligned with the Trump Department of Education's announcement last month, which promised a reversion to the first Trump administration's Title IX rule, enforcing protections on the basis of biological sex, not on the basis of so-called "gender identity."

"The Biden administration's failed attempt to rewrite Title IX was an unlawful abuse of regulatory power and an egregious slight to women and girls," said acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. "Under the Trump administration, the Education Department will champion equal opportunity for all Americans, including women and girls, by protecting their right to safe and separate facilities and activities in schools, colleges, and universities."

Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project who was present for the signing ceremony Wednesday, told Blaze News that he spent the past six years "speaking with anyone and everyone to save America from this gender insanity," adding that his organization shelled out $1 million on polling and testing with regard to "transgender issues, including women's sports," and $18 million hammering Democrats on their support for gender ideology.

'This is a victory for every girl who has fought for fairness.'

"I got a chance to meet with President Trump last summer, and I shared with him our voter impact study from previous elections showing that women's sports and protecting kids from gender insanity moved tens of thousands of voters in Arizona and Wisconsin," said Schilling. "Opposing gender insanity is one of the few areas in politics where you don't have to choose between good public policy and good politics."

"President Trump won on this issue and is keeping his promises from the campaign trail," continued Schilling. "What a welcome change in political leadership!"

Kaitlynn Wheeler — a member of the women's swim team who with All-American swim star Riley Gaines not only had to compete with the cross-dresser formerly known as William Thomas but found herself sharing a locker room with him — was also present for the signing, which coincided with the 39th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Wheeler noted in advance on X, "This is a victory for every girl who has fought for fairness, every woman who refused to be silenced, & every future athlete who deserves a level playing field."

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has worked diligently to keep cross-dressers and predatory men out of women's facilities at the U.S. Capitol, tweeted that "this executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX's original intent, and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels."

"No amount of activism, corporate pressure, or lies can erase reality — men are biologically different from women," added Mace.

The decision to keep opportunistic men from competing against female athletes, over whom they enjoy scientifically documented physical advantages, comes just one week after Trump made good on another campaign promise to ban the "chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children."

The previous week, Trump signed an order both prohibiting the use of federal funds to promote gender ideology and underscoring that sex is unchangeable and "grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."

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'Just be inclusive!' New women's apparel commercial spotlights harassment women face from pro-transgender activists



A new ad for women's clothing directly targeted pro-transgender activists who insist that men participate in women's sports.

The brand, XX-XY Athletics, showcased a campaign titled Real Girls Rock, which directly addressed critics of the women who have refused to participate or spoken out when men have competed in women's sports.

The ad features commentary against NCAA athletes like Riley Gaines and Sia Liilii. Gaines competed against male swimmer Lia (Luke) Thomas in college swimming, while Liilii and her teammates at Nevada refused to play San Jose State University this last season because SJSU had a male athlete on its women's volleyball team.

"Riley Gaines and Sia Liilii are in hot water over their transphobic comments," a radio voiceover said in the ad. "I just gotta say, who cares if biological males play in women's sports? Just be inclusive."

The spot continued, playing on the trope that the issue of men in women's sports is "a bunch of fearmongering from right-wing bigots."

The ad then featured commentary that called Liilii a massive distraction to her team due to "hate-filled rhetoric."

— (@)

The commercial also shed light on the criticism female athletes have received and showed one of the athletes opening her phone to messages calling her a "bitch" and a "transphobe" and telling her to die.

While it may seem like hyperbole, the treatment the athletes have received — even from their own athletic departments — has been shocking.

For example, SJSU's Brook Slusser described her team meetings as being all about the transgender player, a 6'1" male player named Blaire Fleming, born Brayden.

'I could not be silenced and manipulated any longer.'

Additionally, SJSU coach Todd Kress was accused by an assistant coach of having filed at least one Title IX complaint against Slusser on the basis that she referred to Fleming with masculine pronouns during media interviews.

That assistant coach, Melissa Batie-Smoose, was suspended indefinitely in November before being subsequently released by the university in the new year.

"I could not be silenced and manipulated any longer, so I had to stand up for what was right," Batie-Smoose told Fox News. "Speaking out to protect these young women and future women was too much to ignore."

Some of the other athletes featured in the XX-XY ad were Jaycee Bassett, a World Taekwondo Championship silver medalist, and Neely Gaines, a Tennessee state champion in gymnastics and younger sister of Riley Gaines.

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The brutal truth: Why women ditched Democrats for Trump



Americans are tired of being told their intellect is limited by race or sex — especially women. Like other groups, women have long been taken for granted by the Democratic Party, as if pro-choice talking points alone are enough to secure their blind loyalty to the rest of the party’s platform.

“The View”co-host Sunny Hostin certainly thinks this is the case, calling Trump’s victory a “a referendum of cultural resentment” merely because Americans overwhelmingly refused the policy platform of “a mixed-race woman married to a Jewish guy.”

No, women didn’t vote for Trump because they are 'so severe upon their own sex.'

The Sunny Hostins of the Democratic establishment refuse to engage in serious self-reflection that could explain the surge of women and other traditionally Democratic groups voting Republican in this election. Are women simply suffering from a mass self-hatred that enticed them to vote for Donald Trump? Or have Democrats made a critical mistake in assuming that abortion is the only issue women care about politically?

Kamala Harris bet on winning the women’s vote by making reproductive rights the center of her campaign. This strategy isn’t new — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats have used it before. However, this approach has arguably become one of the Democrats’ gravest miscalculations, and Harris paid the price.

Over the past four years, women have faced the same economic pressures as men — buying groceries, filling gas tanks, and dealing with higher interest rates. Men aren’t the only ones who care about the economy, and no matter how often politicians chant, “My body, my choice,” it can’t drown out the financial strain of Bidenomics. Women, like men, wanted economic solutions and found them with Trump. For them, Kamala Harris and “my body, my choice” were not nearly enough.

Women’s bodies seem to matter to Democrats only when it comes to abortion. After the COVID pandemic, women have led the push for greater medical autonomy, nutritional transparency, and broader access to holistic, cycle-based health care. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to address these issues by holding Big Pharma and Big Food accountable, and women rallied around him in droves. But instead of supporting RFK Jr. and the women’s issues he represented, the Democratic Party labeled him an “anti-vax conspiracy theorist,” dismissing both him and the women he galvanized. Is it any wonder they followed Kennedy across the aisle to Trump?

Democrats also seem indifferent to women’s health care standards beyond abortion access. Women are continually overprescribed birth control as a blanket treatment for almost any ailment, wreaking havoc on their bodies. When outlets like Evie magazine highlighted how Big Pharma profits from pumping women full of synthetic estrogens, the Washington Post labeled the writers “conspiracy theorists.” But don’t worry — if birth control fails, Democrats will ensure you still have access to abortion.

Yet the “my body, my choice” mantra doesn’t seem to apply to women’s sports, bathrooms, or sororities. Kamala Harris might have played Beyoncé’s “Girls Run the World” at her rallies, but when her party cheers for an Algerian man beating elite female athletes or celebrates Lia Thomas while dismissing Riley Gaines as a “right-wing extremist,” the pretense of “women’s empowerment” becomes hard to believe.

Women are also tired of being told by the “woke elite” that they’re “fatphobic” if they don’t laud Lizzo as a health and beauty icon while Adele and Rebel Wilson are criticized for promoting “unhealthy” beauty standards through their weight loss. According to MSNBC, fitness is a sign of “right-wing extremism,” so it’s supposedly better to sit on the couch and pop birth control.

When Democrats celebrate being an overweight, unhealthy, androgynous “menstruating person” over a mom who works out, wears dresses, and drinks raw milk, they risk alienating a significant portion of their base.

The Democrats assume women have an obligatory, blind allegiance requiring them to support any woman running for office regardless of her policies. Such an assumption that a woman’s political capacities are limited to a candidate’s sex is not only an insult to women’s intelligence — it’s frankly anti-feminist.

In response to Sunny Hostin: No, women didn’t vote for Trump because they are “so severe upon their own sex.” Like birth control, your party prescribed “my body, my choice” as a cure-all for any political ailment afflicting women over the past four years of Biden and Harris’ policy failures. Trump’s platform actually listened to women. You took them for granted.

FACT CHECK: Did Riley Gaines Criticize Whoopi Goldberg On ‘The View?’

A viral post shared on Threads claims Riley Gaines purportedly criticized Whoopi Goldberg on ABC’s daytime talk show, “The View.”   View on Threads   Verdict: False The claim is false and originally stems from an article published on the satire site “SpaceX Arena.” Fact Check: Goldberg said she was “still not going to say […]

Nevada women's volleyball captain sheds tears as team forfeits against opponent with male player: 'Not what we signed up for'



Nevada women's volleyball captain Sia Liilii delivered emotional remarks as her team officially forfeited a game against San Jose State University, which has a male on its women's team.

Nevada players had announced their intention to forfeit weeks prior to their game against SJSU, which has a 6'1" male — Blaire Fleming, born Brayden — on its roster.

'This is what bravery looks like, this is what leadership looks like.'

However, University of Nevada officials rejected the players' vote and said the game would go on as scheduled in accordance with NCAA rules and state laws surrounding gender inclusion.

Last week, the match was moved from Nevada to SJSU "in the best interest of both programs and the well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff and spectators," a statement read.

Andrew Wevers/Getty Images

As reported by Outkick, it wasn't until the day before the match — scheduled for this past Saturday — that Nevada officials finally announced a forfeit.

"Due to not having enough players to compete, the University of Nevada women's volleyball team will not play its scheduled Mountain West Conference match at San José State," the school reportedly said in a statement.

Nevada players held a news conference at game time Saturday with the support of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports as well as former NCAA athlete Riley Gaines.

Image source: Independent Council on Women’s Sports video screenshot, used by permission

You can view video of the news conference here. Gaines begins speaking after the 9:30 mark; Liilii begins speaking after the 19-minute mark.

At least nine members of the Nevada team stood on stage during the presser, all wearing shirts that read "BOYcott."

"This is what bravery looks like, this is what leadership looks like," Gaines stated before introducing Liilii. "Certainly more bravery and leadership than the people who are supposed to be protecting them have shown."

Liilii received a standing ovation upon taking the podium, bringing the senior to tears as she prepared to deliver her remarks.

"I never expected to be blindsided ... having to compete against a male athlete," the Hawaiian student began. "When the news broke, I was stunned, as many of my teammates were. This is not what we signed up for."

'We were told we weren't educated enough, and we didn't understand the science.'

In addition to Nevada, four other schools have forfeited against SJSU, however, none have given specific reasons as to why they were doing so. This, despite Fleming's own teammate saying, "We all know the reason."

The Nevada team captain addressed this head on, saying that the "the vague messages" from other schools weren't "directly addressing the injustice" the women were facing in their sport.

She added that her school even made its decision without consulting its own players, the ones who were directly in danger: "We were not consulted, we were not given a voice, and we did not agree."

Shockingly, the athlete revealed that when the team spoke to school administrators, the officials refused to even listen to their statements: "We were told we weren't educated enough, and we didn't understand the science." With that, the crowd in attendance loudly booed.

Blaze News on Monday reached out to the school for comment on Liilii's aforementioned assertion but didn't immediately hear back.

Liilii explained that she and her teammates did not expect to have to "fight for basic fairness" and that they do indeed understand the difference between a male and a female athlete.

She went on to ask the NCAA an open question: "How many young women will have to be beaten, or see their friends get beaten out of an opportunity by a male, before enough is enough?"

Liilii concluded, "Men do not belong in women's sports. If you were born a male, you do not belong in women's sports."

Nevada on Tuesday is scheduled to play Utah State before returning home to play Boise State on Nov. 2; both Utah State and Boise State teams also forfeited matches against SJSU.

On SJSU's schedule, the team lists the forfeited matches as "no contest."

On Nevada's schedule, however, the loss reads "forfeit."

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