Concerned Women for America submitted a federal civil rights complaint versus the University of Pennsylvania for allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete on the school’s Women’s swim team.
The conservative-minded, evangelical Christian group implicates the college of “refusing to protect the rights of college female athletes” under Title IX in a complaint filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Thomas is anatomically and biologically a male with physical capacities that are different from anatomically and biologically female athletes, which extends an unfair advantage and strips female student-athletes of opportunities afforded to them by law,” CWA said in a press release.
CWA declares that allowing Thomas to complete in the Ivy League and also NCAA is a “direct violation” of Title IX, a measure that bans sex-based discrimination in education.
The complaint has arisen on the very first day of the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas placed first in the initial 500-year freestyle event at the finals on Thursday.
Thomas has actually shaken up plumes this season as the swimmer set pool, institution, and also Ivy League records. Thomas contended for three years on the men’s team and was rated 462 as a male swimmer, however soared to number one after being allowed to sign up with the ladies team this season..
Movie critics have actually explained that Thomas has an unreasonable biological advantage from years of completing as a guy.
“The future of women’s sports is at risk and the equal rights of female athletes are being infringed,” said Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America. “We filed a formal civil rights complaint against UPenn in response to this injustice.”
“Any school that defies federal civil rights law by denying women equal opportunities in athletic programs, forcing women to compete against athletes who are biologically male must be held accountable,” Nance said in a statement.
The issue notes that media reports show that Thomas’s colleagues “have grumbled concerning UPenn permitting an aggressive atmosphere to fester in its storage locker space which has actually put them in uneasiness.”.
Of 37 swimmers on the group, resources informed Sports Illustrated previously this month that six to 8 of the swimmers are determined supporters of Thomas while half the group opposes Thomas completing versus women et cetera have disengaged from the debate.
One Penn moms and dad told Sports Illustrated that while “Lia is a human being who deserves to be treated with respect and dignity,” that it is “not transphobic to say I disagree with where she’s swimming.”
The report says Penn swim parents sent out a December 5 letter to the NCAA asking Thomas be ruled ineligible for females’s competitions.
“At stake here is the integrity of women’s sports,” the parents wrote in the letter to Penn and the Ivy League. “The precedent being set—one in which women do not have a protected and equitable space to compete—is a direct threat to female athletes in every sport. What are the boundaries? How is this in line with the NCAA’s commitment to providing a fair environment for student-athletes?”
While the parents got no action from the NCAA, Penn athletic director Alanna Shanahan sent a message to the team stating the college fully supports every one of its swimming student-athletes and desires to “help our community navigate Lia’s success in the pool this winter.” Shanahan recommended that dismayed swimmers ought to ” use durable sources offered to them,” consisting of the college’s department of Counseling and Psychological Services.
Thomas addressed the conflict in an interview with Sports Illustrated saying, “I’m a woman, just like anybody else on the team.”
H/T National Review
