Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan has denounced the school’s aggressive campaign of “gaslighting and fearmongering” against its female athletes. She recently testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government about her experience with trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
“Myself and other female swimmers were required to undress in the presence of a biological male 18 times a week,” Scanlan shared. “Many of us chose to change in the locked stalls of the bathroom or the family changing room, desperate to have some privacy against a student who was physically larger and stronger than we were.”
Scanlan explained that when she and her fellow swimmers expressed their concerns to the athletic department, they were harassed and told to remain silent and accept the situation. Even when they sought to use scientific fact to explain how male chromosomal characteristics cannot be reversed in an effort to fight back against the situation, their op-ed was eventually retracted.
Thomas’s ranking in the 200-yard freestyle changed from 554th in the 2018-19 season when competing against male swimmers to fifth during the 2021-22 season when competing against female swimmers. Additionally, Thomas broke the 500 and 200 meter freestyle Ivy League records during the 2021-22 season.
Lia Thomas teammate @PaulaYScanlan becomes emotional sharing how she was sexually assaulted at 16, but was still forced to share a locker room with a biological man. pic.twitter.com/yeMGljZHXs
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) July 27, 2023
It would appear that the school created an environment that was unacceptably dangerous for female athletes. They were left with no support as they were expected to remain silent. This is a painful reminder of the corruption and unfairness that exists in too many woke liberal schools today and demonstrates the importance of students’ and athletes’ rights to a safe and equitable playing field.
ALL the girls should have just quit. I realize many may have been there in scholarships, but it would have left the school in a highly embarrassing way not to have a women’s swim team because of their woke policies
Wouldn’t it be funny if the schools women’s swim team had all males?
Are these schools being assimilated into these re-education camps through donations given to them?! In turn, these donations are therefore bribes to do favors/re-educate an LBQGT program?! Why out of the blue do these schools want to change/add a curriculum of LBQGT in the last few years?! Adding these programs to their Marxist-Leninist programs!! So is it a conspiracy if you see it actually happening?!
UPenn needs shut down until they find adults to run it.
good luck with that. The “elite ” eastern schools tend to lean far to the left, sad commentary.