‘Women are now third-class citizens,’ says Penn teammate of trans swimmer

An anonymous swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team has expressed frustration about the dominance of her trans teammate Lia Thomas in an exclusive interview with The Washington Examiner.

“Women are now third-class citizens,” the swimmer said, referring to how feminists and liberals believe that women are “second-class citizens” in a patriarchal, or male-dominated, society. Thomas was born male and competes among biological females with approval from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

“Lia was not even close to being competitive as a man in the 50 and the 100 (freestyle events),” the swimmer continued. “But just because Lia is biologically a man, [Lia] is just naturally better than many females in the 50 and the 100 or anything that [Lia] wasn’t good at as a man.”

The comments came after the UPenn women’s team met Harvard at a dual swim meet on Saturday, where Thomas continued to dominate by winning the 100-yard in 50.55 seconds and 200-yard freestyle races in 1:47.08.

The Penn swimmer says she was “typically liberal,” which is why she is doubly-offended more people are not standing up against Thomas’s participation in women’s meets.

“The top people at NCAA, who are on the board of directors … they are not protecting women’s rights,” the swimmer told the Examiner. “Imagine if there was this kind of inequality in men’s sports. Or someone found out about doping in a men’s sport. It would be fixed in a blink of an eye. Everyone would be all over it. But because it’s women, they don’t care.”

She also lamented how many people had expressed support to her privately but were too afraid to in public.

“I’m trying to do everything I can without harming my future from stopping this from happening,” she said. “I can’t just sit back and let something like this happen. I’m not just going to sit back and say, ‘My rights are being taken away, too bad.’ It’s embarrassing that people aren’t speaking out more.”