Nuance Please!

In this episode I go over the State of The Union, Lia Thomas, Ukraine, and how crazy kids are now a days. We all deserve peace, love, and a happiness. The Ukraine Crisis! (with Ben Norton) Texans, Why are Your Children Growing Up and Becoming Like This? ‘I Am Lia’: The Trans Swimmer Dividing America Tells Her Story That argument is disingenuous to Thomas. There is no such thing as half-support: Either you back her fully as a woman or you don’t. “The very simple answer is that I’m not a man,” she says. “I’m a woman, so I belong on the women’s team. Trans people deserve that same respect every other athlete gets.” Two days later, 16 Penn teammates sent an unsigned letter to Ivy League officials, requesting that Thomas be held out of the conference championship meet. The letter was organized by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold medalist who heads Champion Women, a women’s sports advocacy group that focuses on Title IX issues. “If [Thomas] were to be eligible to compete,” the letter read, “she could now break Penn, Ivy and NCAA women’s swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.” The Ivy League later issued an unequivocal statement that Thomas would be allowed to swim. They discussed possible federal legislation on the issue of trans athletes and eligibility. Some wondered whether Georgia—the site of the championships—could pass a law in time that would ban athletes such as Thomas from competing against other women. (Similar legislation has been passed in at least 10 states.) The idea of a swimmer boycott of championships was discussed. The idea got little traction. “We need to be able to talk about these issues in a way where people don’t think they’re going to get torn to pieces, personally or professionally, over this,” says Dave Salo, a former USC coach who attended the meeting and later talked to SI. “I’m sure Lia is a great woman, and I’m sure she’s genuine with the reasons why she wants to swim. But we have to be honest about the physical advantages she has, and it has to be O.K. to say that.”