It’s not very often a person who is the center of a controversy remains silent. More often than not it would be significantly better for them if they did, but the allure of media attention and a belief that if they only get their side of the story out everyone would understand and the whole affair will be put to bed is just too strong. It never works. The latest example of this is swimmer Lia Thomas, the “trans woman” or man pretending to be a woman who set all kinds of records swimming against college women this year.
Men are stronger and faster than women. It’s important to get that out there at the start. Not every man is faster than every woman, but on average there is no contest between the two – the all-time world record for the 100-meter dash in the Olympics for women would not have qualified for the finals in the men’s competition, for example. Only dumb people and liars pretend otherwise.
Speaking of dumb people, I can now see why Lia Thomas has remained silent to this point, the dude is dumb. Rather than acknowledge the reality (or even possibility) that the testosterone not only being produced by his body currently (less than before, but it’s still there), but the impact of the 2 decades of testosterone that helped create his physical being to that point give him an advantage, he claims it’s that he’s happy now. Yes, really.
Look, I don’t begrudge anyone their happiness, and I don’t want to see or reveling knowing people are miserable generally, though there are exceptions. Lia Thomas is not one of them. I hope he’s happy, I really do. But that doesn’t make him smart or it right that he’s competing against women.
When asked how it was that suddenly Thomas, who didn’t come close to sniffing success as a male swimmer, was able to become one of the best “female” swimmers in the country, Lia pulled one of the dumbest answers ever out of the air. “There’s a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do and the biggest change for me is that I’m happy and sophomore year, when I had my best times competing with the men, I was miserable,” Thomas said. “So having that be lifted is incredibly relieving and allows me to put my all into training and racing.”
In sports, a lot of people tell themselves lies. “I could have gotten a scholarship to play in college if only I had better grades” or “I might’ve been drafted if I’d hadn’t blown out my elbow.” Sometimes it’s true, most times it’s the stories we tell ourselves to make us feel better – everyone, after all, is the hero of their own story.
That’s what Thomas is attempting to do here. “Will Thomas was an also-ran as a swimmer because he was unhappy, miserable really, because he hadn’t come to terms with ‘his truth’ that he was really a she yet.”
OK, fine. I honestly don’t care what lies Thomas or anyone else tells themselves to get through the day. But if simply being happy were the difference maker, the x-factor allowing someone to practice harder and perform better, that kind of ignores some great performances by people in times of tragedy or some miserable people who were wildly successful in competitions.
Most importantly, however, is the fact that Thomas did not continue to compete against men, instead changing to compete against women. There is nothing in the NCAA rules that denies a woman the ability to compete against men. Biological reality created the two separate sports. If Thomas becoming happy by coming out as trans freed him to train better, he should have stayed competing against men because he would have dominated, right?
No women compete against men in sports, at least not in any non-publicity stunt way, because men are, on average, stronger and faster. Will Thomas is stronger and faster than female swimmers, but he’s not anywhere close to the best as a male swimmer.
Thomas added, “Trans people don't transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.” I believe that. It would take a special kind of crazy to alter your body chemically, doing permanent damage, just to win some trophies.
That being said, the male body remains the male body no matter how many alterations or hormone treatments are done or how fervently the resident of the body believes otherwise. Reality is not dependent upon your belief in it. Lia Thomas can live as a woman from here to eternity, I couldn’t care less and wish him nothing but contentment and happiness. But it will never be fair or right for a man to compete against women in sports, no matter how many left-wing journalists or trans athletes insist otherwise. Gender is real, or else there’s be at least one woman not only competing against men, but dominating in their sport. Until that happens, and happens often, I’m going to stick with reality.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily nationally syndicated radio show, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter
Join the conversation as a VIP Member