A report from a mother of a swimmer - USA

[pombear]

I don't think there's a thread on this yet. This is such a powerful testament on behalf of her daughter's experience swimming against Thomas.

The coercion and pressure on the young women in the teams is shocking, as is the ACLU response when the mother contacted them.

"I was told that the words biological and genetic had no business being in a discussion around sex and gender. I was told transwomen are women, they're female, they're girls. No language that minimises that point should be tolerated. I was told it was an offensive question, my language was out of date. I was told that sex and gender are equally important and that the ACLU is actively removing sex from legal documentations and legal language"

She (ACLU rep) concluded with. "Let me tell you with certainty, the ACLU will never represent ciswomen against women"

When I shared this with my mother in law the next day she said "Well, there you go, we're literally flying the plane upside down now, aren't we"

"I know my daughter spent two days to emotionally prepare to race Lia.

She spent the days writing down her thoughts, working through her emotions. And trying to mentally prepare for standing in front of a crowd next to a man. Where everyone present knew the race was unfair. But no one would speak.

She knew she would not win. But this was not about shame and losing.

This was about being asked to measure her worth as a female athlete next to a pharmaceutically hamstrung man who would make her look like a child.

And she worked through how she would shake hands at the end of the race, and how to make sure she would not cry. (Something I’m apparently not doing).

She also worked through how many towels to take in her bag into her locker room in case she needed to cover herself completely when she changed.

All the girls knew Lia was still physically intact and had been using the locker rooms.

It turned out that stress was not necessary as Lia used another locker room space during the meet but it came up again before Ivy League championship where the girls usually share a space for all the teams.

I asked my daughter what she would do if Lia was changing in there.

And she said, resignedly, I’m not sure I have a choice.

I still can’t believe I had to tell my adult aged daughter, you always have a choice about whether you undress in front of a man."

"On the last night of the meet, when no one was in danger of being kicked out of participation, the distance free girls who had raced Lia all season finally had a race to themselves in the final of the 1650.

The one race in the meet where the girls all knew beforehand who was competing and had a chance to talk to each other across multiple teams.

They all marched out holding hands from the ready room round the pool and all the way behind the blocks. I have never seen this at a meet, it’s never been done. It was a message. It was silent, but it was a message.

We support each other."

It’s fucking grim - I can’t believe this is still happening

It's outrageous. Those poor young women.

Awful to listen to.

Jeez that's a powerful statement. Knowing that everyone knows it's unfair but if you say anything you'll be branded a bigot and undoubtedly chucked out of the team and lose your college place if it's based on your sport. Being forced to undress in front of a man. Not being allowed to speak about it. Gaslighting in extremis.
It's all about power.

Just awful. What a fucking disgrace.

This is awful 😞

I'm sure Swim Mom has a transcript she'll share elsewhere, but I wanted to ensure it's documented in case the clip disappears from the internet. Some more powerful quotes:

"I could not bear to see women’s sports redefined and reworked to no longer be a place where women could pursue and celebrate their physical limits without comparing themselves to men.

While I was reading, my daughter and the rest of the girls in the Ivy League were getting another kind of education.

The kind no one should receive.

The Ivy League released their statement literally dripping with sexism.

‘The Ivy League releases the following statement of support regarding Penn’s Lia Thomas’s participation on the Women’s Swimming and Diving Team.

"Over the past several years Lia and the University of Pennslyvania have worked with the NCAA to follow all the appropriate protocols in order to comply with the NCAA policy on transgender athlete participation and compete on the Penn Women’s Swimming and Diving Team. The Ivy League has adopted and applies the same NCAA policy. The Ivy League reaffirms its unwavering commitment to providing an inclusive environment for all student athletes whilst condemning transphobia and discrimination in any form. The League welcomes her participation in the sport of women’s swimming and diving and looks forward to celebrating the success of all our students athletes throughout the season"

My daughter screenshotted the message and sent it to me with “I’m so confused’"

It's rampant misogyny running fucking wild.

'Cis women and women'????

I'm constantly reminded of Germaine Greer saying that women have no idea how much men hate them.

Here is Mara Yamauchi, the number two marathon champion, talking to Andrew Doyle. She is now retired and can speak out. She has said that every single athlete she has spoken to, and they are legion, think it's disgusting but are too scared to speak out.

All of them have been told to shut the fuck up, lest they lose their careers.

Where are the authorities? Where is the fucking government?

Where are the bloody grown-ups who can restrain the wild excesses of these misogynists.

And we're constantly told to be respectful?

Give me a fucking break.

Some more from the recording:

"Ivy Championships was under way.

A huge banner was draped behind the starting blocks that read ‘8 against hate’ referring to the eight Ivy League schools. And every team were given t-shirts with the same message. Several teams were required to wear it.

I know many of us wanted desperately to rewrite that logo with ‘8 agreed to discriminate’.

The warms-up would begin , the announcer reading his monologue at the beginning of every session “The Ivy League condemns all forms of transphobia” and it went on from there. Not a word about sexism in the message.

Was a warning, don’t say one thing perceived as transphobic, but women deserve the abuse they’re receiving, and should stay silent when confronted by their schools and their League robbing them of opportunities and fair treatment.

Supporting the girls had begun to feel like it was taking on an element of rot. A sickening twist in our stomach since we took our places in the stands. Determined to cheer our daughters on as best we could.

The joy of the meet was spoilt from the onset but we couldn’t bring ourselves to let our girls face this alone.

Day after day we watched this as a young lady was replaced in a final swim.

Replaced on the podium.

Erased from a record or a relay spot.

And finally replaced for Swimmer of the Meet.. by a man.
A 6 foot 4 man, with a back twice as wide as any one of the girls out there. A man that didn’t appear to put forth full effort in all of the races."

That's so heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing the transcript. I'm beyond angry for these poor young women. Watching the recent Winter Olympics, where a medal can be won on literally a fraction of a second, it's mindblowing how such a huge physical advantage can be ignored like this. These women are stuck between a rock and a hard place, aren't they?

Are there pictures from any of these races?

I found a video of the last race where the women walk out holding hands.

twitter.com/IWF/status/1495207889836859393?t=l_ytkwb-UbUFrYV7lTJ1EQ&s=19

God this makes me so fucking angry. Just fuck off all the people in charge of this absolute shit show. How dare they rob these women and girls of opportunities they’ve worked their arses off for, just so some man’s feelings aren’t hurt. It’s a disgrace.

snuffykins fantastic find!

That's fab snuffykins - and they walked under an arch of hands from other female swimmers and officials? spectators? Lovely

@YouSayYesISayNo

I didn't realise that Lia Thomas had been named Swimmer of the Meet

Cheat of the Meet has a better ring to it.

Thank you pombear for the transcript. It was incredibly powerful to hear her speak.

Shocking this is allowed to happen

@Datun

It's rampant misogyny running fucking wild.

'Cis women and women'????

I'm constantly reminded of Germaine Greer saying that women have no idea how much men hate them.

Here is Mara Yamauchi, the number two marathon champion, talking to Andrew Doyle. She is now retired and can speak out. She has said that every single athlete she has spoken to, and they are legion, think it's disgusting but are too scared to speak out.

All of them have been told to shut the fuck up, lest they lose their careers.

Where are the authorities? Where is the fucking government?

Where are the bloody grown-ups who can restrain the wild excesses of these misogynists.

And we're constantly told to be respectful?

Give me a fucking break.

I watched that interview. She was amazing. Calm, measured and right. The bit about how many women Lia had pushed out was very interesting and not something that is talked about as much as it should be. We just get told it's only one transwoman it won't hurt. It went something like this. Lia pushed out a women who could've been on that team. Lia won 3 races so that's 3 women who missed out on gold, the bronze winners should have been silver so that's another three. The women who came 4th should have got bronze so that's another three. Then the 3 women who should have come 8th missed out on the A races so would have gone to the B races. We are already into double figures. It would be good to see the race schedule and see exactly how many women Lia trampled over. Let's not forget Lia was ranked 462nd when competing against men but went to first when competing against women. It's such blatant cheating.

The video which I shared at Harry's Place the british blog, is gone. I viewed it not one hour ago.

Podcast link instead.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/fqt-26-february-2022/id1552991274?i=1000552433234