Former student-athletes from the University of Pennsylvania sued the school to get transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’s records expunged.
According to court documents obtained by Fox News, UPenn alumni Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist sued their alma mater, the NCAA, Harvard University, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents over their experience on the same team as Thomas. They argued that being forced to compete with Thomas “injured them and violated federal law.”
According to The National News Desk, the plaintiffs are demanding that Thomas’s records be vacated and that UPenn declare that Thomas was ineligible to compete on the women’s swim team.
“The Ivy League’s plan was to crown a man as a women’s champion in one of the most iconic swimming venues in America as scores of national and international journalists described the scene as a landmark civil rights accomplishment to be venerated,” the lawsuit says. “To bring its vision to fruition, the Ivy League engaged in a season-long pressure campaign to keep Thomas eligible to compete and prevent women from speaking up for their equal rights.”
The swimmers alleged that their coach and UPenn administrators informed them that the school was closely coordinating with the NCAA and the Ivy League to ensure that Thomas would be able to compete on the women’s team for the 2021-2022 swimming season.
“These statements about close coordination between UPenn, the Ivy League and the NCAA regarding Thomas’ eligibility led the UPenn Women’s Team members to understand the resisting or protesting the participation of Thomas on the team or his presence in the locker room would be futile and could result in the women being removed from the team or from UPenn,” the lawsuit continues.
Thomas is not named as a defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that UPenn administrators told the female swimmers to seek counseling from the “LBGTQ (sic) center” if they had a problem with Thomas being allowed on the women’s team.
“The administrators also invited the women to a talk titled, ‘Trans 101.’ Thus, the women were led to understand that UPenn’s position was that if a woman on the team had any problem with a trans-identifying male being on her team that woman had a psychological problem and needed counseling,” the lawsuit says.
The three swimmers also alleged that they were threatened with retaliation if they spoke out against Thomas.
“The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’” the lawsuit alleges.
Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in March 2022.
On Wednesday, surrounded by hundreds of female athletes, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.
“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,” he said at the signing ceremony Wednesday evening. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”
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NCAA President Charlie Baker implied that the organization would follow the new directive in a Wednesday statement.
“The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes,” Baker said. “We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
