A former University of Pennsylvania swimmer for their women’s team revealed that she and her teammates were forced to undress numerous times each week in the same locker room as biological male Lia Thomas — and when they protested, they were offered psychological counseling.
Paula Scanlan, now a spokesperson for the Independent Women’s Forum, spoke before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday. Scanlan began by noting that although she was not an NCAA champion, she held the New England independent school league record in the 400-yard freestyle record, a record that has stood since March of 2017.
“Lia, formerly Will, had personal best times in every freestyle event that were faster than the women’s world records,” she stated. “Once the season began, Thomas was leading the country in multiple events while only placing in the top 500 in those events on the men’s team.”
“While many of you already know this, what you do not know is the experiences of the women of the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team,” she asserted. “My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence of Lia — a 6’4 biological male fully intact with male genitalia — 18 times per week. Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls and others used the family bathroom to avoid this. When we tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable and we were offered psychological services to attempt to reeducate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
“To sum up the university’s response, we, the women, were the problem, not the victims,” she said. “We were expected to conform, to move over and shut up. Our feelings didn’t matter. The university was gaslighting and fearmongering women to validate the feelings and identity of a male.”
WOMEN'S SPORTS ACTIVIST PAULA SCANLAN:
"We were told that Lia swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable, and we were offered psychological services to attempt to reeducate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male." pic.twitter.com/pA42el4J78
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 27, 2023
In April, Thomas suggested that women athletes who criticize Thomas for competing in women’s sports are “transphobic” but too scared to say so.
Thomas made the comments — which included the charge that seeing men as men and women as women was derived from “patriarchal ideas” — while speaking to former NCAA swimmer Schuyler Bailar, who claims to be a man, on Bailar’s podcast.
Asked about the letter sent to the NCAA by parents of Thomas’ teammates, warning against its rules permitting Thomas to participate in women’s sports, Thomas responded, “They’re like: ‘Oh, we respect Lia as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair.’ You can’t really have that sort of half-support, where like, I respect you as a woman here, but not here.”
“You can’t do that; you can’t sort of break down me as a person into little pieces,” Thomas declared.
“They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs,” Thomas insisted. “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.”