Lia Thomas vows to fight Trump trans athlete bans

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has vowed to keep fighting for trans inclusion in sport.

Following his inauguration in January, Donald Trump issued several executive orders explicitly targeting the trans community, including declaring the official policy of the US was that there are “only two sexes”, banning trans men and women from the armed forces and restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youngsters under the age 19.

In February, he followed up on his campaign promises with an executive order titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.

“In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports. This is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports,” the presidential directive read.

Although not a law as such, it stated that the US government would “rescind all funds from educational programmes that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy”, and it would henceforth be the policy of the Trump administration “to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity and truth”.

In response to the ban, Thomas, who made history in 2022 as the first trans woman to win a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimming championship, said she would continue to advocate for trans inclusion.

“I am going to keep fighting as much as I am able to,’ she told a trans youth forum, according to right-wing sports site Outkick. “In order to fight the battles we need to fight, we have to stick together and support [one another].”

Thomas went on to say that it “has to be the athletes deciding for themselves where they feel most affirmed and most comfortable,” rather than letting politicians make the decision.

She has previously insisted that transgender women were “not a threat to women’s sports”, saying: “Trans people don’t transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves.

“Trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. The NCAA rules regarding trans women competing in women’s sports have been around for 10-plus years and we haven’t seen any massive wave of trans women dominating.”

The swimmer told ABC that the fear of her not being able to take part in the sport she loves had originally kept her from transitioning.

“The mental and emotional changes actually happened very quickly,” she said of transitioning. “I was feeling a lot better mentally, I was less depressed and I lost muscle mass. I became a lot weaker and a lot slower in the water.”

Thomas’ NCAA success made her the target of right-wing attacks, including from former college swimming rival Riley Gaines.

Ahead of the presidential election last year, Trump vowed to end trans inclusion in sports. “We’re not going to let it happen,” he said. “We stop it, we absolutely stop it. We can’t have it. You just ban it. The president bans it. You don’t let it happen, it’s not a big deal.”

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.