Trans Swimming Champion Lia Thomas Nominated For ‘NCAA Woman Of The Year’

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Trans Swimming Champion Lia Thomas Nominated For ‘NCAA Woman Of The Year’ Dawn Ennis Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I report on the fight for transgender equality and other LGBTQ issues. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jul 16, 2022, 07:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas reacts after finishing tied for 5th in the 200 . . .

[+] Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta Georgia. Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The University of Pennsylvania has selected two student-athletes as nominees for the NCAA’s 2022 Woman of the Year Award : A tennis player from Russia and the first out transgender Division I women’s national swimming champion, Lia Thomas .

Despite reports of the ongoing atrocities Russia is commiting in Ukraine , it’s not Iuliia Bryzgalova whose nomination is making headlines. Thomas is but one of 577 graduating women student-athletes chosen by their colleges and universities, according to the NCAA. What’s setting her apart is the fact that she is an out trans woman who in March 2019 swam for the UPenn men’s team, then began a medical transition so she could compete with other women, in accordance with NCAA regulations, beginning in the fall semester of 2021.

Thomas completed 30 months of testosterone-reducing hormone therapy before she won the 500-yard freestyle at the championships in Atlanta this past March. She beat her closest competitor by more than a second, but never finished better than fifth in her two remaining contests. Opponents booed her, organized protests and sent the NCAA complaint letters , while supporters countered with cheers and letters of support.

Activists from Save Women’s Sports boo Lia Thomas at McAuley Aquatics Center in Atlanta, Ga on . . .

[+] Friday, March 18, 2022. Dawn Ennis MORE FOR YOU Stuff You Shouldn’t Say To Disabled People 3 Ways Disability Culture Has Been Changing I’m Right And You’re Wrong: Social Media Sins All that is once again stirring controversy, and lighting up social media with negative reactions, transphobic comments, misgendering and outright bigotry. WTA Legend Ambassador Martina Navratilova gives a interview during a media day before opening day of .

. . [+] 2021 Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara at Centro Panamericano de Tenis on November 09, 2021 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images. Getty Images A report in the right-leaning Washington Examiner quoted out lesbian tennis icon Martina Navratilova , a noted opponent of transgender inclusion in sports, in its coverage of the announcement. “There must be an ‘asterisk’ by the transgender swimmer’s name when it comes to Thomas’s success,” wrote Examiner social media producer Luke Gentile, explaining Navratilova’s position.

“It’s not about excluding transgender women from winning ever,” Navratilova said. “But it is about not allowing them to win when they were not anywhere near winning as men. ” Navratilova is mistaken when it comes to Thomas: As Karleigh Webb reported in Outsports , as a sophomore at Penn, Thomas finished second in the Ivy League men’s championship final in the 1650 free.

It was her third second-place effort at that meet. And as that site’s co-founder, Cyd Zeigler, wrote , Thomas was considerably slower in each of her events as the woman she is than she was pre-transition. “Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole,” Thomas told ESPN’s Katie Barnes in May, her first extensive interview since being crowned national champion.

“Trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. The NCAA rules regarding trans women competing in women’s sports have been around for 10-plus years. And we haven’t seen any massive wave of trans women dominating.

” Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas does a television interview after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle . . .

[+] at the NCAA swimming and diving championships Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Thomas is the first known transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) ASSOCIATED PRESS Despite that, and without conclusive scientific evidence, the world governing body for swimmers last month voted to ban transgender women athletes from competing with elite cisgender women, as ESPN reported .

FINA established a new “open” category for trans women, which is still in the works. The new policy requires transgender competitors to have completed their transition by age 12 to be able to compete in competitions with cisgender women and girls. The working group is tasked with determining how to set up the new open category within six months, FINA said.

“Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers,” said the NCAA in announcing the nominees. “As 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports. ” Billy Jean King, tennis icon and gender equality advocate, speaks after helping unveil a portrait of .

. . [+] the late Rep.

Patsy Mink of Hawaii, the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress and who helped pass the Title IX Amendment to prohibit sex-based discrimination in federal programs, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. . AP Photo/J.

Scott Applewhite) Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved Title IX removed barriers for women and girls across education. The law made sex-based discrimination illegal in programs and institutions that received federal funding.

As Edward Conroy reported for Forbes in June , the Biden administration marked the Title IX anniversary last month by proposing new rules providing various protections, including legal protection from sex discrimination, requiring that schools respond promptly and effectively to any complaints of sex discrimination, and ensuring that LGBTQ+ students are shielded from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Justice Department and ACLU are tackling individual states challenging the rights of trans students in court. What’s next in terms of the awards is that an NCAA selection panel will review the 577 nominees and pick 30 Women of the Year honorees, from which they will then choose nine finalists—-three from each NCAA division, according to the organization’s website .

The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will then review those finalists before selecting the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. Exterior views of NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. Photo by AJ Mast/Icon SMI/Corbis/Icon .

. . [+] Sportswire via Getty Images.

Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The winner will be named in January 2023 at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Texas is also the state where Republicans have targeted families providing gender-affirming healthcare to their transgender children, labeling it “child abuse. ” As of last month, a federal judge called for a halt to such investigations, which the state has continued pending appeal.

Unlike in 2o16, when the NCAA and other sports organizations pulled events from North Carolina in response to a law that targeted transgender Americans by restricting which public bathrooms they could use, the NCAA has not taken any action against Texas or any of the 17 other states that have banned trans student-athletes from competing according to their authentic gender identity. What the NCAA did do, in January , is abandon its 11-year-old trans participation policy and hand over the power to limit, restrict, ban or allow trans competitors to individual sporting bodies. That’s what opened the door for FINA and USA Swimming to essentially ban trans female swimmers from competing with other women.

This month, British Triathlon matched that ban , and more sports organizations are expected to follow. Essentially, Lia Thomas may wind up both the first and last out transgender champion, regardless of whether she is ultimately named the woman of the year. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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