XPost: rec.sport.swimming, alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.transgendered   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   Former teammates of successful trans swimmer, Lia Thomas, have spoken out   
   over their discomfort at having to undress next to her "18 times a week".   
      
   A highly contentious issue in America’s culture wars, the debate over   
   trans participation in women’s sport has spilled over from the pool and   
   into the locker room.   
      
   Addressing the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Thomas’ former   
   teammate and NCAA Division I swimmer, Paula Scanlan, told lawmakers that   
   complaints fell on deaf ears.   
      
   Scanlan said: “My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence   
   of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall, biological male, with fully intact male   
   genitalia, 18 times per week.   
      
   “Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls and others used the family   
   bathroom to avoid this.”   
      
   When teammates raised the issue with the university, Scanlan says they   
   were offered counselling to “reeducate” with the intention of making them   
   “comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male”.   
      
   Addressing the committee meeting, called The Dangers and Due Process   
   Violations of Gender-Affirming Care, Scanlan said: “To sum up the   
   university's response, we, the women, were the problem, not the victims.   
      
   “We were expected to conform, to move over and shut up. Our feelings   
   didn't matter. The university was gaslighting and fear-mongering women to   
   validate the feelings and identity of a male.”   
      
   Thomas had previously competed on the male swimming team, before beginning   
   the transitioning process in 2019 and joining the female team in 2021.   
      
   Competing in the men’s team for the 2018-2919 season, Thomas ranked 554th   
   in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle, and 32nd in the 1650   
   freestyle.   
      
   In the 2021-2022 season, those rankings improved when competing in the   
   women’s team to fifth in the 200 freestyle, first in the 500 freestyle,   
   and eighth in the 1650 freestyle.   
      
   Thomas became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming title at   
   the Ivy League Penn, and was nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year   
   Award 2022 as a result.   
      
   Looking back, Scanlan told the committee:”'Lia formally had personal best   
   times in every freestyle event that were faster than the women's world   
   records.”   
      
   She added: “Today, any discussion maintaining the sanctity of women's   
   spaces is labeled transphobic, bigoted and hateful.   
      
   “What's bigoted and hateful is discrimination against women and the   
   efforts to erase women and our equal opportunities, dignity and safe   
   spaces.”   
      
   The hearing came after another swimmer, Riley Gaines, expressed the   
   opinion to Fox News that the National Collegiate Athletic Association   
   should create separate locker rooms for transgender athletes.   
      
   Gaines, a 12-time All-American and five-time SEC champion, reflected on   
   her discomfort at being exposed to Thomas’s male genitalia after a meet.   
      
   She said: "We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a   
   locker room with Lia.   
      
   “We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in   
   that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man   
   dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male   
   genitalia.”   
      
   Gaines added: "Not even probably a year, two years ago, this would have   
   been considered some form of sexual assault, voyeurism.”   
      
   https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/trans-swimmer-allowed-to-undress-   
   next-to-biological-women-and-females-who-complained-were-told-to-get-   
   reeducated/ar-   
   AA1etFUM?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=a7aadce8c2674878a796eb3b2e769eff&ei=9   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)