Teammates of UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas have come forward admitting discomfort in the locker room.
The 22-year-old Thomas, who is a biological male allegedly still has the genitalia that she was born with. According to one teammate, Thomas’ genitals are often visible. The teammate also alleges that Thomas is still attracted to women, and has admitted to the team that she dates women.
“It’s definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women,”
Thomas has allegedly “shown off” her male reproductive parts to other athletes on her UPenn swim team.
The other athletes struggle with the situation. While it makes them feel incredibly uncomfortable, they don’t feel as though they can speak out. Their anonymity prevents their reputation from being tarnished with allegations of transphobia.
“If this gets a little bit bigger, I might go on the record, but I’m definitely a little afraid. What I’m afraid of is that potential employers will Google my name and see commentary about things I said and think, ‘Oh, this person’s transphobic.’” The anonymous UPenn swimmer told the Daily Mail.
Talks regarding Lia and her ability to change in the women’s locker room have been initiated, but seem to have gotten nowhere.
“But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.” She said.