Approaching Sodom > NCAA revokes trans athletes policy; Girls Suing UPenn and Ivy League over Lia Thomas

 

NCAA reverses trans policy

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Former UPenn athletes sue school, Ivy League to vacate transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’ collegiate records

By 

Nicholas McEntyre

Published Feb. 6, 2025, 3:42 a.m. ET

Three former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers alleged they suffered emotional trauma by having transgender swimmer Lia Thomas as a teammate as they called for the Ivy League to expunge Thomas’ records, according to a lawsuit.

UPenn alum Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist filed the suit on Tuesday, a day before President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.

The three graduates allege their former school, Harvard University, the NCAA and the Ivy League Council of Presidents harassed, abused and violated federal laws when they allowed Thomas to compete on their team, according to the lawsuit obtained by Fox News.

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UPenn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the pool after winning the women’s 500-meter freestyle at Harvard on Jan. 22, 2022.

AP

“The 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,” the lawsuit alleges. 

Kaczorowski and Holmquist, who graduated in 2024, and Estabrook, a 2022 graduate, claimed they were “repeatedly emotionally traumatized” because Thomas was allowed to compete with them, a violation of Title IX.

They claim school officials pushed their pro-trans ideology on the women throughout the time Thomas was on the team.

Administrators allegedly invited the swimmers to a talk titled “Trans 101” where they believed if they had a problem with a “trans-identifying male” on their team, they had psychological problems and needed to see a counselor.

The swimmers accused school officials of warning them against speaking out on Thomas or they’d be branded as a transphobe and risk not finding jobs in the future.

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Thomas stands on the first place podium as other medalists Emma Weyant, Erica Sullivan and Brooke Forde pose together at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship on March 17, 2022.

Getty Images

The lawsuit also accuses the four defendants of creating a culture of intimidation that forced young women to deny biology.

Thomas was not listed as a defendant in the filing.

Adding Thomas as a member to the women’s jeopardized the swimmers’ opportunities, privacy, and safety, the suit claims.

Thomas, who competed for the UPenn Men’s Swimming and Diving team from 2017 to 2020 was introduced to the women’s team as their incoming teammate in 2019.

Thomas came in first in the 500-, 200- and 100-yard freestyle races, setting pool and Ivy League records,

Thomas broke several women’s records at the Ivy League Championship meet in 2022, which was hosted at Harvard University.

The lawsuit asks the judge to declare Thomas was ineligible to compete in the women’s races and to vacate the records, The National News Desk reported.

The former Quaker swimmers accused school administrators, the NCAA, the Ivy League of coordinating together to ensure Thomas was eligible to compete on the women’s team for the 2021-2022 season.

Initially, the women were reportedly assured they wouldn’t be sharing a locker room with their new teammate, but the school changed policy and Thomas changed alongside them.

“When UPenn’s women’s swimmers returned to school in the fall of 2021 they were shocked to discover that Thomas was being allowed to use the women’s locker room at UPenn and would be allowed to use the women’s locker room at swim meets,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Margot [Kaczorowski] only learned that Thomas had been authorized by UPenn to use the women’s locker room when she walked in the women’s locker room to find Thomas in front of her changing his clothing,” the suit added.

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Protesters hold signs calling for no males competing against female athletes.

AP

Kaczorowski allegedly confronted her coach Mike Schnur after the locker room incident.

“I know it’s wrong but there’s nothing I can do,” Schnur reportedly told her, according to the outlet.

The coach warned the women that he would be fired if he spoke out about Thomas’ use of the women’s locker room.

Trump’s executive order, signed on Feb. 5, pressures schools to comply with his order by threatening to pull federal funding.

“From now on, women’s sports will be only for women,” Trump said during the signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” he added.

Approaching Sodom > Xgender swimmers win Ivy League; Women win in Scotland's Court of Sessions; Children lose to Gov't; Trans dismemberer released from jail

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Transgender swimmer breaks record as women ‘race for second’

The controversial college athlete achieved unspectacular results

when she previously competed in male competition

Lia Thomas © Kathryn Riley / Getty Images

University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas set a new pool record to win the women’s 500-yard freestyle event at the Ivy League Championships – beating her nearest rival by more than seven seconds.

In a result that is certain to ignite the fierce debate in the US over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete against participants born as women, Thomas built a huge lead during the second half of the race as she broke Olympian Kate Ziegler's record.

Thomas has been at the center of controversy since she initially beat college records and earned a series of comfortable wins to qualify for the national championships.

Numerous bills in US states have sought to legally stop transgender athletes from competing against rivals born as women, achieving varying degrees of success amid passionate arguments and protests on both sides of the row.

Supporters of the bills believe that athletes born as men – particularly those who pass through puberty before transitioning, as Thomas has – have an unfair advantage and risk denying female-born prospects the chance to realize their full potential.

Their opponents say that outlawing trans athletes from taking part is discriminatory.

22-year-old Thomas is said to have been the top seed in the 200-yard, 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle events.

Another transgender wins 

Yale University’s Iszac Henig, who is competing as a woman while transitioning from female to male, beat his own record to win the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday.

Henig beat Thomas in a race in January, although that heralded accusations that Thomas had not put in maximum effort on her way to an unusually slow sixth-place finish.

Former college swimmer Emily Kreps, of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, said that Thomas had posted the 17th fastest in history for women's swimming.

"My heart breaks for the destruction of women's sports," she added. "The governing sports bodies have let women down.

"ESPN commentators couldn't help themselves but admire Thomas' athletic prowess and commanding lead over the female swimmers. Never once did they comment that Thomas may have this advantage because Thomas is a biological male.

"They said more than once that it was 'racing for second' in a women's competition. We need bills... to pass to protect women and women's sports."

Thomas was not made available for media duties afterwards. She is said to have met eligibility rules by receiving hormone therapy for more than two years.

Governing body USA Swimming recently ruled that a three-member panel will now decide whether women who have transitioned possess an unfair advantage during female competition against biologically-born women.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has also issued a new policy allowing each sport to set its own rules. Leaders remain under pressure to take further measures.

Lia's supporters will cause you to shake your head...

Penn senior Andie Myers reportedly wore a facemask with a transgender flag to show backing for Thomas. "I want everyone at this meet to know that I support her,” she told ESPN.

“She’s worked for all of this and she’s given up so much to transition and to be authentically herself. I think it’s really important and I think it’s really brave what she’s doing today.”

A Thomas supporter on social media told Kreps: "It wasn't a 'race for second place' for all the women. A woman named Lia Thomas won – through her skill and her perseverance.

"I'm a man who's been swimming since I was five but I couldn't have beaten any of these women. Lia Thomas is awesome. We should all be cheering her on."

Another brilliant comment - "Cool, good for her. Maybe they should have tried harder."

Good grief!

A wee bit of common sense, for a change...

Court rules ‘women’ can’t be redefined

Edinburgh court rejects 2018 law that attempted to include trans women

under the legal definition for women

FILE PHOTO: Court rules against SNP government law that let transwomen avail gender quotas

for biological women. June 28, 2019. © AFP / Angela Weiss

The Scottish government has lost a legal battle over a gender representation law that “expanded the definition of women” to include transgender people. Women’s rights activists had argued that the legislation violated “protected characteristics” related to sex in the UK’s 2010 Equality Act.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled on Friday that the Scottish National Party (SNP) government had overstepped its authority when drafting the Gender Representation on Public Boards Scotland Act in 2018, which implemented 50% quotas for women on public sector boards.

Under the law, an individual “living as a woman” who plans to undergo (or has undergone) a “process for the purpose of becoming female” should be considered on par with biological women when filling these quotas. It invoked the “protected characteristic” of gender reassignment.

But the court stated that by “incorporating those transsexuals living as women into the definition of woman,” the legislation “conflates and confuses” two different protected characteristics. The three judges hearing the case said the ruling was not about the “rights and wrongs” of the trans rights debate, but whether the legislation fell under Holyrood’s devolved powers.

The definition of ‘woman’ adopted in the 2018 act “impinges on the nature of protected characteristics which is a reserved matter,” the ruling states, adding that “changing the definitions” of what constituted a protected characteristic is “not permitted” since it would negate laws passed by Westminster. The court said that the government should have instituted separate quotas for transgender people instead.

The 2018 law put the 'protected characteristics' of transgenders above those of women. What madness! It's so good to see the Scottish court stop that.

The judges noted that the definition used in the legislation would, in theory, make it possible for public boards to achieve their gender quota without adding a single board member who is a biological woman.

The law was challenged by campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS), which had appealed to the court after losing a judicial review last year. FWS director Trina Budge told The Telegraph that the act would have “allowed men who had not had to deal with pregnancy or workplace motherhood penalties to take advantage simply by taking on a woman's name and adopting female pronouns.”

“We are delighted that this has been corrected in law and that the judges have restated that the protected characteristic of sex refers to either a male or a female and that provisions in favour of women must, by definition, exclude those who are biologically male,” Budge added.

Meanwhile, an unnamed spokeswoman told the paper that the SNP government was “disappointed by the outcome and are considering its terms.” It will either have to strike out the definition of women from the legislation, or take the case to the UK Supreme Court, the paper reported.

What happens when you have far-left people in government responsible for children...

Government accused of ‘effectively’ lowering age of consent to 13

Scottish guidance says don’t tell parents about underage sex

Family advocates are up in arms against a new guideline issued by the Scottish government which they say promotes – or at least condones – underage sex among children as young as 13, local media reported on Sunday. 

The policy states that if a young person is in a “safe and mutually respectful” relationship, police, teachers and social workers should maintain “confidentiality” – i.e. no telling Mom and Dad. However, the age of consent in Scotland is 16, meaning that no matter how safe and respectful a child’s relationship may be, it technically could be outside the law.

Family campaigners, the Catholic church and others concerned with increased meddling into families’ personal lives by the state have excoriated the new protocol, with the Family Education Trust declaring the rule “effectively” lowers the age of consent to 13.

The policy is “effectively a charter for underage sex,” the Trust’s Piers Shepherd told the Mail on Sunday, declaring that the “emphasis on confidentiality shows scant respect for parents who are principal legal guardians” and “raises serious health and safety concerns” regarding the child. Parents, he argued, are “best placed to shield children from the harmful effects of underage sexual activity.”

The new policy specifies that cases where the child is clearly at risk – where there is a “power imbalance,” grooming, bribing, coercion, or alcohol and drug use – can be reported to parents. However “If sexual activity is taken place/has taken place within safe and mutually respectful relationship, the confidentiality should generally be maintained.”

It’s not clear how police, teachers, and social workers are supposed to gauge the health of an underage relationship. A government spokesman insisted that the “non-statutory guidance” provided in the 276-page National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 “does not conflict in any way” with the 2009 law that affirmed Scotland’s age of consent at 16. Indeed, he claimed, the law makes clear that “society does not encourage sexual intercourse in young people under 16.”

As Shepard of the Family Education Trust pointed out, Scottish children under 16 can’t even get a free bus travel card without a parent to fill out the application. Nor can they vote until that age. Signing up for military service at age 16 requires parental permission, and children who want to change their official gender must wait until age 18.

The new child protection policy is just one of several recent steps by Edinburgh that child advocates worry constitutes an unwholesome compulsion to peer into children’s sex lives. Last month, many parents on both ends of the political spectrum denounced the SNP-led government’s health and well-being census, which among other controversial questions asked 14-year-old respondents about their experience with anal sex. Worse, while the survey reassured students its results would be kept confidential, children were asked to fill in their unique Scottish candidate number, while parents were informed such identifying information would be used to identify a child “in exceptional circumstances.” The government defended its survey, arguing that children who felt uncomfortable about the questions could skip them or opt out of the census entirely.

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Trans woman’s killer released after breast implants

help identify mutilated corpse

The woman’s dismembered body was found by a schoolboy in a river six months later

By Layla Guest

Tamara Khatamzhonov © Social media

A Russian man who brutally killed and dismembered a transgender sex worker from Central Asia has been allowed to walk free on time already served by a St. Petersburg court despite having been found guilty of the crime, media outlets have reported.

On Wednesday, the press secretary of the city’s courts told news agency Lenta that judges in the Vasileostrovsky District had released Yury Yanovsky from custody, crediting his time spent in pre-detention.

The actor had been charged with killing Tamara Khatamzhonov, a 24-year-old transgender sex worker, said to be a native of the former Soviet republic Tajikistan. However, he was later convicted of homicide committed while exceeding the limits of self-defense, and judges ruled that he was to serve one year and ten months behind bars.

On January 13, 2020, Yanovsky, who was intoxicated, argued with Khatamzhonov. The man claimed that the sex worker wanted to give him sleeping pills and steal from him. He stabbed her twice in the neck and once in the stomach. She died on the spot.

Yanovsky dismembered the victim’s body and threw it into the Mga River, in northern Russia’s Leningrad Region. Her severely mutilated, decapitated corpse was only found six months later by a schoolboy as he swam in the water.

Police in the region traced the serial number of her breast implants, manufactured by a Dublin-based company, to a hospital in Russia that had carried out the surgery.

So, the only reason for releasing Yanovsky early had to be that the victim was a transgender and was trying to rob the perpetrator. The incredible dismemberment of the body might suggest far more emotion than self-protection. This should frighten transgenders in Russia, especially those in the sex trades.

Vasileostrovsky District, St. Petersburg

Approaching Sodom > Trans Swimmer's teammate speaks out; SPLC declares Parents as extremists; Pride month becomes rebellion month

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Trans swimmer Lia Thomas' former teammate speaks out

for the first time: 'Frightening'

By Samantha Kamman, 

Christian Post Reporter

University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas smiles after winning the 100-yard freestyle during the 2022 Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at Blodgett Pool on February 19, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | Kathryn Riley/Getty Images

One of trans-identified swimmer Lia Thomas' former teammates accused her alma mater of silencing opposition to including a biological male on the women's swim team, revealing that female swimmers were forced to hide in bathroom stalls to avoid changing in front of Thomas. 

In an interview published Tuesday by the Daily Wire, which purports to be the first public interview featuring one of Thomas' teammates, Paula Scanlan told conservative Matt Walsh that the University of Pennsylvania did not want the student-athletes to speak out on what was happening in the athletic department, calling the situation "scary." 

"They continued to tell us that our opinions were wrong and if we had an issue about it, we were the problem," Scanlan said. "[A]nd it's frightening, and your future job is on the line."

Scanlan, who competed on the Penn women's swim team for three seasons, spoke about the experience of sharing a locker room with a biological male. Thomas, born with the first name Will, competed for three seasons on the Penn men's swim team before competing on the women's team during the 2021-2022 season. 

Thomas made headlines as the biological male became a national champion and an All-American in the women's division. 

Noticing that many girls started changing in the bathroom stalls, Scanlan attested she had never seen such behavior before Thomas became part of the women's team. 

"The biggest thing was just when you're changing, and there's all of these people talking in the background, and you hear all of these women's voices, and all of the sudden, you hear a man's voice," Scanlan recalled. "I'd always kind of jump a little."

Scanlan spoke of one teammate who complained about the situation to the athletic department. Scanlan admitted that she did not know what they said to her, but afterward, the girl began acting as if having a biological male on the women's swim team was a "magical, beautiful thing."

Good grief! How sick!

"They said, 'Don't talk to the media; you will regret it. … Lia's swimming is non-negotiable,'" the athlete said. "And then they provided us with counseling services to help us be OK with Lia swimming."

"It's frightening, and your future job is on the line and everything else you want to accomplish, so of course, it worked, and then after that point, no one would talk about it anymore," Scanlan said.

Scanlan claimed that institutions such as the Ivy League and the National Collegiate Athletics Association failed her and fellow athletes.

Despite the discomforts of having a biological male on the team, these institutions did not step in, she said. 

"I think the biggest thing is to just fight for those people who don't have a voice: those younger girls, the girls that are aged 12 to 14 who are just starting out on those sports teams," she added. 

Scanlan isn't the only NCAA swimmer who had a problem with Thomas being allowed to compete against them. 

Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and University of Kentucky graduate, revealed in an interview last year with Tucker Carlson that she was surprised the NCAA allowed a biological male to compete against women, believing at first that the institution would not permit it. 

During the NCAA championships, Gaines said Thomas' best time was "at least a second and a half faster" than hers, which makes a significant difference in the sport. 

"The environment is nothing like I've ever seen before," Gaines said about the atmosphere at the championships. She characterized the atmosphere as "edgy" because "people didn't really know what to say, who to say what to, how to feel."

Traitorous move by NCAA

Gaines ultimately tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle, a feat she described as "pretty rare in swimming." The former swimmer felt compelled to speak out after an NCAA official told Gaines that Thomas would get to take a picture with the fifth-place trophy while she would receive a separate trophy in the mail. 

Even though Gaines tied for fifth place with Thomas, the official asked the female athlete to pose for a picture with a sixth-place trophy. 

"I think God kind of put me in that position to where I'm just not someone who's scared to speak out," she concluded.

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SPLC names 12 parent’s rights orgs as

‘anti-government extremist groups’

JUN 10, 2023 8:00 AM 

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

Jihad Watch

The FBI stated in February that “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” is a national threat. They based this assessment on smears from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC continues its vehement attacks on traditional Christian values. It has now “named 12 parents’ rights organizations, including the incredibly effective Moms For Liberty, as ‘anti-government extremist groups’ in its 2022 ‘hate and extremism’ report.”

Isn't 'radical-traditionalist an oxymoron?

The SPLC, along with other far-Left groups, continues to target Judeo-Christian traditions, beliefs and practices, which leads to intensifying social persecution.

SPLC

After SPLC Quietly Admits Subjectivity, Corporate Media

Amplify Baseless Smears Against Parents

by Jordan Boyd, The Federalist, June 7, 3023:

The Southern Poverty Law Center continued its smear campaign against conservative groups this week when it named 12 parents’ rights organizations, including the incredibly effective Moms For Liberty, as “anti-government extremist groups” in its 2022 “hate and extremism” report.

Over the last two years, the Biden administration, with the help of the National School Boards Association, used manufactured reasoning to target concerned parents as potential “terrorists.” For his participation in the intimidation campaign, Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland was hauled in front of Congress where he not only denied that the Department of Justice was weaponized against Americans for political reasons but also indicated he would keep targeting parents.

The SPLC continued the Biden regime’s mission by sullying the dozen grassroots groups as “reactionary anti-student inclusion” organizations that promote “anti-LGBTQ, racist and nationalist themes.”

“Groups like Moms for Liberty are a new battlefront vs inclusivity in schools, but are rooted in age-old white supremacy,” SPLC’s Intelligence Project Director Susan Corke tweeted on Tuesday.

“Name-calling parents who want to be a part of their child’s education as ‘hate groups’ or ‘bigoted’ just further exposes what this battle is all about: Who fundamentally gets to decide what is taught to our kids in school – parents or government employees? We believe that parental rights do not stop at the classroom door and no amount of hate from groups like this is going to stop that,” Moms for Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich told Fox News after the report’s release….

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Spate of homophobic vandalism puts southern Manitoba

LGBTQ community on edge

Sarah Petz · CBC News · 

Posted: Jun 10, 2023 4:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: June 10

United Church groups in the Pembina Valley show their support as they march in Morden's first Pride

parade in 2019. Several recent acts of homophobia have been reported in the southern Manitoba city,

as it prepares for its second Pride parade this weekend. (Ian Froese/CBC)

Pembina United Church welcomes all - Jesus also welcomes all sinners, since we are all sinners it can be said that Jesus welcomes all, but, as He said to several sinners, "Go and sin no more"!

For Jessi Ingalls, this weekend's Pride parade in the southern Manitoba city of Morden was supposed to be a celebration. 

But after having a Pride flag ripped from the home she shares with her partner and two children last weekend, she says she's now going to Saturday's parade as an act of defiance. 

Ultimately, it could be said that LGBTQs are quintessentially rebellious.

"It's definitely more of a protest. It's not so much a celebration," she said Friday. 

"It's more of 'we're here and we're not going away, and you need to either learn to love and accept that or be quiet.'"

The tearing down of Ingalls's flag overnight last Saturday is one of several acts of homophobic vandalism in the Pembina Valley region, as Morden — a city of just over 9,000 — prepares for its second-ever Pride parade, following one in 2019.

A van, two Pride flags, and a church have all been vandalized recently in Morden and the nearby city of Winkler.

The day before her flag was torn down, Ingalls said she was having a yard sale when someone working for a political campaign showed up and tried to start a debate.

"I asked him to leave after explaining that they're hurting people. And then that night, overnight, our flag was ripped off." 

The following day, a van that belonged to a friend in Winkler, which had been decorated for Pride, was spray-painted with a homophobic slur, Ingalls said.

There is more on this story on Canada's far-left, national government broadcaster, CBC