Lia Thomas Says 'Feminists' Are Just 'Transphobes'

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and transgender woman, Lia Thomas says that those standing up for women's rights in athletics are just pushing transphobic beliefs.

Let's not waste too much time going over the reasons why it's unfair for a biological man to compete against women. We all know this. Anyone who argues that at this point is just being difficult.

Anyway, during an appearance on the podcast Dear Schuyler, Thomas said these efforts to protect women's sports are nothing more than veiled transphobia.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, we respect Lia, as a woman, as a trans woman or whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair,’" Thomas said. "You can’t really have that sort of half-support where you’re like, ‘Oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.'”

Yeah, because who needs nuanced thinking?

Right, Lia?

Nuanced Thought Is A Thing, And Most People Have It Despite What Thomas Says

Respecting people who identify as transgender and also knowing that biological men have an advantage in many, many sports are not mutually exclusive. In fact, that's probably the prevailing point of view.

Support isn't a blind, full-steam-ahead run into all or nothing. To say otherwise is wildly disingenuous, and frankly, wrong.

Alright. but let's hear her out. Maybe she has a good point — probably, not — but let's see.

“They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs. I think a lot of people in that camp sort of carry an implicit bias against trans people, but don’t want to, I guess, fully manifest or speak that out. And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half-support..” Thomas said.

I don't think they have an implicit bias. They're frustrated at the explicit advantage that a biological will have over them in these sports.

They're also explicitly frustrated, not with the transwoman themselves, but with the progressive politics that led to opportunities being taken from biological women in favor of making the trans person — or more nefariously, the people just seeking woke street cred — feel good about themselves.

Of course, Thomas and the show's host, swimmer Schuyler Bailar — a transman (i.e. biological woman) — said there is information to dispel that pesky "myth" about biological sex and the advantage men have over women. Where that information is, they didn't say; though they assured the audience that exists somewhere.

Perhaps Narnia? I can't think of anywhere else.

Bailar claimed that this phantom study showed that testosterone didn't provide an advantage. Alright; never mind that taking extra testosterone is usually banned by most sporting bodies because it provides an advantage, What about musculature? What about bone structure?

The observable facts don't live with the views of people like Thomas and Bailar. So what do they do? They attempt to bend them so that they do.

Of course, in this case, that did that poorly, but dammit, if they didn't it give the ol' college try anyway.

The Goal Of "Protecting Women's Sports" Is Exactly That

Bailar claimed that people who just want biological women to compete against biological women are harboring a hidden agenda. They're actually just hellbent on banning trans people for the sake of banning trans people.

Ah, yes; the "Why are you so obsessed with me argument?"

“They think about how twisted 'feminism' has become their arguments. In order to exclude anybody in the trans category, you have to reduce women to reproductive capacity, which is, in my opinion, extremely anti-feminist,” Bailar said.

Thomas and Bailar talked several times about Thomas not being considered a "real woman" (I know). That's not the point, and it never was. The bulk of the entire issue centers on competitive advantage.

A Quick Thought Exercise

Let's take trans people out of the equation entirely got a moment and do a quick thought exercise ...

Imagine if out of nowhere, people said, "Alright, It's okay for polar bears to compete in women's sports. Why? They said they wanted to."

I'm not sure how much you know about polar bears, but here are three quick facts: they're big, they're strong, and they swim fast. They would annihilate anyone — male or female — in most sports.

They'd start winning medals and taking opportunities from biological women. Then, can you take a wild guess at what would happen?

If you said, "There would be a movement to ban polar bears from competing in women's sports," congratulations on having basic critical thinking skills.

However, that push to ban them wouldn't be because of polar bear-phobia. It would be because they had an inherent advantage over biological women.

That's the case here and it always was. To shift the narrative the way Thomas and Bailar try to is misguided at best and purposely misleading at worst.

Those fighting this fight — like Riley Gaines, Sage Steele, Sam Ponder, OutKick's own Tomi Lahren and Charly Arnolt, and the countless other women who are brave enough to speak up on this — aren't on the forefront of the issue because of transgender people. They're doing it for biological women who are being pushed aside by the woke policies of the progressive left.

Opponents of this idea know this, but they have to try something. Otherwise, their argument starts to crumble around them faster than it already does.

Follow On Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.