It has taken far too long for female athletes to hold the NCAA accountable for its absurd policies as to transgender men competing in women’s sports as “women.” [That’s sort of an awkward sentence, but I felt like I had to say it that way to be clear.]
This is a class action suit — meaning it is on behalf of all women college athletes — and is centered on Lia Thomas, a mediocre 6’1″ male swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania who transitioned to “womanhood” and then became a champion “female” athlete.
Thomas emerged as a NCAA Women’s Division I Champ in 2022 winning the 500-yard freestyle and named as an All-American in three events (meaning Thomas posted one of the 16 fastest times in those events).
The named plaintiffs on behalf of the class are: Riley Gaines, Kylee Alons, Katie Blankenship, Réka György, Julianna Morrow, Lily Mullens, Kate Pearson, Carter Satterfield, and Kaitlynn Wheeler — all biological women.
There are some anonymous plaintiffs, thus, not “named” such as “Swimmer A” who walked into a locker room to find a naked Lia Thomas and his genitalia on full frontal display from a distance of 8’11”.
These women have all been personally damaged by the NCAA’s policy and will be seeking meaningful financial damages. This is a high stakes lawsuit.
The beef centers on some specific issues, but at the core is Title IX (the law of the land for half a century) which legislated “fair and equal” treatment for both female and male athletes and is silent on transgender athletes. Some specific allegations and interesting points from the lawsuit:
1. A transgender athlete who has undergone hormone therapy still has 5X the testosterone of elite female athletes (and, of course, a set of male genitalia).
Testerone suppression is one of the hallmarks of the issue of transition; however, even after testerone suppression, a transgender athlete still has 5X the testerone of the elite women athletes on the medal stand with him. That single fact seems to undermine any notion this is a fair competition.
2. The NCAA has an affirmative duty to protect women athletes and to foster fair competition under Title IX before any other real or perceived duty to transgender men.
3. Women swimmers who have competed in the Olympics are not competitive with transgender men as proven in national championships. Lia Thomas beat women who had qualified for and medaled at the Olympics.
4. Women athletes object to sharing a locker room and showers with a transgender man and his genitalia as well as providing a gratutious view of their own bodies.
Apparently, the skin tight racing costumes the ladies wear take 15-20 minutes to wiggle into during which their intimate anatomy is on display. Simultaneously, they are exposed to the same level of anatomical display when the transgender gents don their suits.
This locker room issue is quite legally significant as it triggers Fourteenth Amendment privacy and consent issues as no woman athlete ever has consented to allowing a transgender and his package to be on full display whilst they are dressing, nor did they extend an invitation to have the transgender examine their anatomy.
Seems more than a little creepy.
5. The plaintiffs — twelve swimmers, two track athletes, a tennis player, and a volleyball player on behalf of the entire class — argue the NCAA is out of step with the international regulator of women’s swimming and diving — World Acquatics — which prohibits any athlete from competing in womens’ sport who “has experienced male puberty.”
World Acquatics issued their policy in 2022 after the kerfuffel at the NCAA 2022 championships.
6. The International Olympic Committee adopted the World Acquatics standard and has ruled Lia Thomas is ineligible to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics as a swimmer. Thomas is appealing that ruling.
Fair to say that everybody else in the world seems to have sorted this issue out except for the NCAA?
Haha, I see what y’all did there, wiseass. Very funny. OK, here it is:
1. The NCAA jammed this whole transgender men in womens’ sports down the throats of the 1,100 schools they regulate without any real debate.
2. There are huuuuuge Title IX implications. Title IX is a federal law and the NCAA is just a governing body that has to follow that law. The NCAA never solicited a legal opinion before enacting their policy.
3. Transgender men competing as “faux” women is not fair as they are still men — even after the ineffective testosterone suppression — and the competition is not fair.
The NCAA has a duty to protect the interests of the vast number of young women far greater than any real of imagined duty to a handful of transgender men.
None of the plaintiffs in this case bear any animus toward Lia Thomas personally; they are opposed to the stupid NCAA rules that have created this situation.
4. World Acquatics led on this matter, the IOC adopted the same policy, and the NCAA needs to follow their lead.
5. All future NCAA meetings to discuss this matter should be conducted in the nude with the NCAA board members subjected to the same outrageous violations of their modesty and the Fourteenth Amendment as they have visited upon innocent, young, women athletes they are sworn to protect.
6. There will be a massive financial settlement or award before this is over.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car!
Have a great weekend and watch the Tarheels tonight at 7:00 PM. Go Heels!
