US University female swim team unanimously reject transgender swimmer

[zanahoria]

In the most dramatic uprising yet against biological males competing in women’s sport, a female swimming team in Virginia have condemned their own university for allegedly making them accept a transgender athlete into their events.

The entire women’s swim team at Roanoke College staged a press conference in which they said they felt cheated and abandoned after a former member of the men’s team joined their ranks last month. The trans swimmer, who has not been named, was a top-10 performer in the equivalent male conference

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2023.10.06-135800/www.telegraph.co.uk/swimming/2023/10/06/roanoke-college-fury-trans-swimmer-squad-lia-thomas/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.ph/2023.10.06-135800/www.telegraph.co.uk/swimming/2023/10/06/roanoke-college-fury-trans-swimmer-squad-lia-thomas/

These women are the brave ones.

Some people say that women should just not compete if a trans woman is in the competition, which is not fair or feasible.
Maybe this is the way for sports women to go, so the women that disagree with a tw in their competition could hold a press conference or make a joint statement prior to the competition.

Genuine leadership from the team captain and integrity from the members

in stark contrast to the people who were prepared to throw these young women under the bus to indulge a man

as for telling them he would have suicidal thoughts if not accepted..!

Interesting that it's happening in Virginia (albeit in one of the more conservative parts), as opposed to a solidly Republican mid-West or deeper South state.

Virginia used to be highly conservative/Republican but, over the last 20 years, has drifted left. Biden won it by a 10% margin in 2020. So this rebellion may have more impact and garner more attention that if it were happening in, say, Kansas.

Yeah, as if the women are responsible for his mental wellbeing…

as for telling them he would have suicidal thoughts if not accepted..!

Emotional blackmail. If true, the person clearly needs proper help.

I applaud these brave women wholeheartedly.
I note this is a NCAA Division 3 university and, if I am correct, I believe it is unusual for a d3 university to offer athletic scholarships.
I think there will be many women in d1 and d2 universities across many sports who are unable to speak out in this way for fear of losing their athletic scholarship money - which in many cases will be significant and absolutely key to their ability to attend university and therefore access degree level education.

Virginia is very much USA on a smaller scale, ie the Democrats tend to live in the cities, the Republicans in the rural areas. I think the overall drift to the left in VA has a lot to do with the growth of the cities, eg the north is effectively suburbs of DC so leans very heavily Democrat. It’s shocking to see the cultural gap when travelling only a few miles up the road and seeing the change in flags and posters. (I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Virginia). So I think it is entirely possible that it will still be dismissed by those in DC as geographical proximity means a lot less than it would in the U.K. The cultural distance is still massive.

Martina Navratilova recently praised a group of female athletes for taking a strong stance against the participation of a transgender athlete on their swim team

https://tennisuptodate.com/wta/this-is-exactly-what-it-will-take-to-change-the-rules-roanoke-college-trans-inclusion-protest-lauded-by-martina-navratilova

This just gets better, the women on the swim team must be pumped but that vote of confidence.

I wouldn't disagree with that, but I still think Virginia's political affiliations are more nuanced than simply town vs country and so aren't subject to quite the same level of patronising dismissal by the powerful as the flyover states and South.

In fact, when I first lived in the US, the district that Roanoke is in - amazingly- returned a Dem Congressman.

Excellent username btw.

I get what you say about its a bit more nuanced than town v country. But some of the Republicans I worked with in particular said that for them that DC might have been 1000 miles instead of 100 miles for all the relevance they felt it had to their lives, and the way they talked was the same as other colleagues I’ve worked with in Missouri, prime flyover country.

i was in VA in 2012 for the election and my district was purple so we had regular visits by both Obama and Romney. I’ll summarise the entire experience as eye opening. I quickly learned to not mention it AT ALL as someone from the left of U.K. politics.

It just emphasised for me that in some things the gulf between USA and U.K. is indeed as big as the Atlantic.

Anyone want to feel angry and depressed? Search a petition on change org called 'Defending LGBTQ+ Rights: A Call for Accountability at Roanoke College'. It's against 'The despicable actions of the Roanoke College students' and the only comment from a signer I can see reads: 'Ciswomen should honestly only be allocated for trans women’s dating preferences. They should have no other rights'

Sometimes I really hate men.

I'm so impressed with these women!!

'Ciswomen should honestly only be allocated for trans women’s dating preferences. They should have no other rights'
I wouldn’t be too angry and depressed about this comment @nothingcomestonothing, it’s a perfect example of Operation Let Them Speak in action. Most other people reading that comment on the petition are going to be as disgusted as us.

“I never expected to be blindsided by a team-mate from the men’s team who now wanted to compete against me and my fellow swimmers and shatter our records,” said Bailey Gallagher, the 21-year-old captain of the senior team, who stressed she had initially been supportive of the swimmer transitioning. Lily Mullens, 20, asked: “Why even try to swim when racing against a biological male? Our defeat was written in biology.”

Mullens explained there had been shock and confusion when their coach informed them the trans swimmer would be part of the women’s team. She and her team-mates claim they were under pressure to show solidarity, describing how the swimmer had expressed suicidal thoughts when told the situation was “biologically unfair”.

Nasty, manipulative cheat.

Excellent, this is what is needed ie women and girls taking collective action. Although some particularly brave individuals can, and do, take action, women and girls standing together is what will ultimately stop this blatant unfairness in sport. Women cyclists (especially in the US) should learn from these swimmers - males are winning currently lots of women's bike races.

Visually, Sport will hopefully be a tipping point for many Americans. Financially, the lawsuits are going to concentrate minds as well.

I'm imagining nervous, whispered conversations amongst the girls to carefully find out who's of like mind, as if they're in Nazi-occupied France ffs.

These women are not responsible for his struggles with mental health nor are they the solution.

struggle with mental health sad feelings because women not giving him what he wants

Awesome women refusing to be bullied

If his mental health is that fragile he shouldn't be doing competitive sports, but solitary sport and counselling.

In competitive sports there's a chance you can lose (even when the odds are unfairly stacked in your favour) and he clearly doesn't have the resilience to deal with that.

To be sure he's going to win then he'd have to be transage and compete against the 7 year olds. Of course there are some people in the USA whose brains have fallen out sufficiently far they'd probably think that's a great idea.

I'm sick of women being told to budge over and be cannon fodder for mentally ill men. No. Women say no. It's not safe.

Also, when men are this entitled and attention seeking I have a healthy scepticism of their 'mental ill health' claims. It's offensive to people who are genuinely mentally ill to use that as a tool for self aggrandisement, cheating, and emotional blackmail.

If he is mentally ill the swim coaches and university staff going along with his delusion are not helping him and failing in their duty of care. The rest of the world has no obligation to collude in his fantasy.

It's very akin to the 'if you loved me you'd have sex with me' emotional manipulation technique which men used to try and erode women's boundaries when I was young. You will make some women feel suicidal by obliterating their sports so take some responsibility and get some help. The solution is not eroding women's boundaries.