Lia Thomas Says Her Critics Using ‘Feminism’ Claims To Hide Transphobia

Lia Thomas — the primary transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship — is firing again at her critics … saying a whole lot of them are merely transphobes who’re “using the guise of feminism” to cover their true, hateful beliefs.

Thomas opened up about her detractors in a prolonged interview this week with Schuyler Bailar — the NCAA’s first trans swimmer — and she or he mentioned it is simply not attainable to assert to be a feminist however to additionally not help her in the case of competing in opposition to organic females.

“They’re like, ‘We respect Lia as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair,'” the previous collegiate swimmer mentioned on the “Dear Schuyler” podcast.

“You can’t really have that sort of half support, where you’re like, ‘Oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.’ They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs.”

Thomas — who competed in opposition to males however switched to feminine competitions after she began hormone remedy in 2019 — obtained backlash following almost each occasion that she gained over organic girls. Her critics argued she had an unfair benefit … and needs to be pressured to compete in a separate class.

The situation grew to become such a giant deal, it sparked legislators to introduce payments in components of the nation to put restrictions on transgender athletes.

Outspoken supporters of these guidelines — resembling former swim star Riley Gaines and even a few of Thomas’ ex-teammates at UPenn — have known as themselves feminists who’re making an attempt to combat to guard girls’s sports activities.

But, throughout her interview with Bailar, Thomas mentioned she believes that is all simply an oxymoron.

“I think a lot of people in that camp sort of carry an implicit bias against trans people,” Thomas mentioned, “but don’t want to, I guess, fully manifest or speak that out and so they try to play it off as this sort of half support.”

Bailar agreed, including, “In order to exclude anybody in the trans category, you have to reduce women to reproductive capacity, which is, in my opinion, extremely anti-feminist.”