Three former NCAA swimmers from the University of Pennsylvania are suing the governing body over what they said was a violation of Title IX and repeated emotional trauma.
The swimmers, Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist filed a lawsuit against UPenn, Harvard, the NCAA, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents over having to share a team locker room with Lia Thomas, an allegedly transgender swimmer.
Thomas was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, Fox News reported, but the women still claimed that UPenn violated their Title IX rights and was engaged in discrimination by allowing Thomas to compete with and against women.
The lawsuit also showed the women claimed the institutions “injured them and violated federal law,” while their experiences sharing changing rooms with Thomas left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.”
Furthermore, the former swimmers said that when they brought up their issues with their administrators, they were led to believe their concerns were rooted in a “psychological problem.”
Moreover, the women said pro-trans ideology was pushed on them throughout the duration of Thomas being in their locker room.
The lawsuit claimed, “UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’ participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center.”
None of the governing bodies responded to inquiries from Fox News.
The news came as President Trump signed an executive order to prevent men from competing in women’s sports. The order called for “enforcement actions against educational institutions” if they force women to participate in sports or athletic events with men, or if they are forced to “appear unclothed before males.”
Violators would be investigated and possibly have their federal funding stripped.
The same day, NCAA President Charlie Baker announced the sporting body would align itself with the new policy.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” a press release stated.
The statement continued, “The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy.”
Baker was grilled by Republican senators two months prior, with the NCAA boss responding that his policies “give people optionality with how they choose to use their facilities.”
Baker referred to a “federal standard” as the reason why no NCAA policy had been made in regards to transgender athletes but said he was willing to “work with” the government to develop one.
At the time, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the NCAA should focus on bigger issues:
“510,000 NCAA athletes. 10 or fewer transgender NCAA athletes nationwide. Let’s focus on ways to actually improve women’s sports,” the senator wrote.
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Fearless, Ncaa, Women’s sports, Transgenderism, Swimming, Lia thomas, Sports