This week, a woman who was teammates with Will “Lia” Thomas on the University of Pennsylvania’s women's swim team appeared in an interview to break her silence about what she experienced competing and sharing a locker room with him.
To recap, Thomas is a biological male who identifies as a “transgender woman.” He competed on the UPenn men’s swim team for three consecutive seasons before deciding to compete as a woman and go by “Lia.” Women were forced to share a locker room with Thomas and felt uncomfortable doing so, which Townhall covered. And, Thomas robbed women of opportunities and took home a Division I Title at the NCAA swimming championships.
Paula Scalan, Thomas’ former teammate, appeared in Matt Walsh’s 2022 film “What is a Woman?” anonymously. In the documentary, Walsh spoke to several “experts” on gender ideology and asked them to define the word “woman.” Predictably, they’re unable to give a coherent answer and push the narrative that “sex” and “gender” are not the same.
This week, Scanlan decided to come out publicly with her story, noting that University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines has been vocal about how female athletes are being treated unfairly due to transgender athletes. Gaines tied with Thomas in a race at the NCAA championships. He was permitted to take the trophy home while she left empty handed.
Scanlan explained that she found out in the fall of 2019 that “Will” Thomas, one of the leaders of the men’s swim team, would be “transitioning to the women’s team” after taking hormone replacement therapy for a year. The women were never given their own, closed-door meeting ahead of time without Thomas in the room to raise their questions and concerns about the situation.
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Before this, Scanlan had never heard of a male transitioning to live as a woman who would go on to compete in women’s sports. And, she shared that she was acquaintances with “Will” and that he was “quiet” and “didn’t speak much to people that weren’t close friends.”
“Definitely not someone that I would expect to be part of such a public scandal,” she added, because he always seemed like someone who kept to himself.
Regarding the locker room situation, Scanlan said that the school never spoke to the girls to inform them that they would be sharing a locker room with a male. She shared that she tried to avoid Thomas and “change as fast as possible.”
“It [the locker room] was uncomfortable. I did notice a few girls – there’s a few bathroom stalls in the bathroom – and I did notice some girls changing in the bathroom stalls for practice, which I’ve never really seen that before,” Scanlan said. “For me personally, the biggest thing was, when you’re changing, there’s all these people talking in the background, all these women’s voices, and then all of a sudden you hear a man’s voice. I’d always kind of jump a little bit [hearing Thomas’ voice].”
In the pool, Scanlan did not ever directly compete against Thomas. But, she watched her female teammates lose opportunities to go to meets who would have qualified if they did not compete against Thomas.
One girl in particular, Scanlan said, was crying when she lost an opportunity to Thomas. As a result, the swimmer scheduled a meeting with the school’s athletic department. When she came back from the meeting, her tune had changed completely, and she thought Thomas being on the team was a “magical” and “groundbreaking” thing.
“There was something going on in that athletic department that wanted to keep us quiet. And I was like, ‘this is getting scary,’” Scanlan explained. She said that girls were told in a meeting, without Thomas present, “do not talk to the media, you will regret it.”
“Another thing they said is, ‘Lia’s swimming is non-negotiable,’ and then they provided us with counseling services to help us be okay with Lia swimming,” she added. “I was petrified.”
A teammate of Lia Thomas appeared in What Is A Woman anonymously. A few days ago she came to us and said she is ready to come out publicly and tell her story. I had a longer conversation with Paula where she revealed a number of details that weren't covered in the film. Watch: pic.twitter.com/wlknGmslJC
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 5, 2023
“They [UPenn] continued to tell us that our opinions were wrong and if we had an issue with it we were the problem,” she said, adding that they made the girls think their future jobs were on the line if they spoke out.
“They effectively silenced us even within talking to each other,” she said, adding that she held out hope that an institution like the NCAA would step in and “do the right thing.” Instead, the NCAA, as well as other institutions, allowed Thomas to continue to compete.
“Looking back, I don’t know why I ever even trusted that they might,” Scanlan acknowledged. “These institutions failed us.”
Scanlan said that it’s her belief that women’s sports should be reserved for biological females. And, instead of a “men’s” team, there should be an “open” category, where transgender athletes can compete, but would have to compete against biological males.
Later on, a writer for the school newspaper asked Scanlan to pen an opinion piece regarding Thomas’ participation on the swim team. Her piece, she explained, was retracted 45 minutes after it was published. The editor dodged her phone calls for a week before speaking to Scanlan and told her that half the newspaper staff threatened to quit because of her piece.
Scanlan pointed out that FINA, the governing body for swimming, announced that people have to transition before age 12 to compete in the Olympics, which she said “no one should be allowed to do.” In addition to the transgender sports issue, the separate issue of allowing children to undergo transgender surgeries and treatments has been the topic of debate in many states.
“We need to pass laws, I think that’s the only way [to move forward], win in courts, in the court cases….the track case in Connecticut….and encourage other people to also speak their own [stories]...there’s so many instances of this happening that we might not even know about,” Scanlan concluded. “If women can’t speak out about this themselves, then what’s the point of fighting?...This is so much more than yourself.”
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