Three former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers have filed a lawsuit over biological males being allowed to use female locker rooms and participate in their competitions.
The students, who have since graduated, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday against their university, Harvard University, the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The lawsuit is based on their experience with teammate Lia Thomas, a former male swimmer who started identifying as a woman and dominating female competitions.
The lawsuit, filed by Grace Estabrook, Margo Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist, with support from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), was provided exclusively to Fox News and has been reviewed by The Daily Wire. The women are seeking damages for “pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expenses costs” and more for the institutions allowing Thomas and other trans-identifying men into women’s spaces and competitions, which they say violated their rights under Title IX. Title IX is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex, and was initially created to ensure women have equal opportunities for sports.
But over the past decade, schools have allowed biological men to self-identify into women’s sports, taking hundreds of medals from women.
The three women now suing have argued that being forced to change clothes in front of Thomas, who still has male genitalia, left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.” It can take around 30 minutes for a competitive swimmer to get into their skintight swimsuits, meaning the women had to spend at least that much time in a vulnerable position in front of a biological man, who was also changing.
“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’s participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from [UPenn’s student wellness center] and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit says.
“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 added.
The former swimmers also allege that the administrators told them not to publicly speak out about the situation, or risk consequences.
“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 says.
The women are suing Harvard as well as UPenn because Harvard hosted the NCAA women’s championship, where Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, and 400-yard freestyle relay as a senior.
Thomas has continued to fight to be allowed to compete against biological women, even attempting to be allowed to compete in elite women’s races post-college, but a legal challenge was denied last year, The Daily Wire reported.
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order to keep biological men out of women’s sports.
