- Three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers are suing UPenn, Harvard and the NCAA. The former swimmers claim their rights were violated when transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competed on the women’s team.
- Specifically, they allege discrimination under Title IX, emotional trauma and privacy violations.
- The lawsuit demands Thomas’ records be vacated. It accuses the Ivy League, UPenn, Harvard and the NCAA of colluding to allow Thomas to compete in the women’s category.
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Three former swimmers from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) are suing their former school, Harvard University and the NCAA. They allege their rights were violated when transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competed on the women’s team.
Thomas, assigned male at birth, swam for the UPenn men’s team before coming out as a trans woman during her junior year. She then switched to the women’s team for the 2021-2022 season.
During the 2022 Ivy League Women’s Championships hosted by Harvard, Thomas won four first-place medals and set multiple records.
Former UPenn swimmers Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski filed the lawsuit Tuesday, Feb. 4, claiming they were discriminated against under Title IX. They allege they were deprived of opportunities to compete and protect their privacy and demand that Thomas’ records be vacated.
The defendants in the suit include the Ivy League Council of Presidents, the president and fellows of Harvard College, UPenn trustees and the NCAA.
The lawsuit states the Ivy League “engaged in a season-long pressure campaign to keep Thomas eligible to compete and prevent women from speaking up for their equal rights.”
The women claim UPenn administrators told them “that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’ participation on the UPenn women’s team, they should seek counseling and support.”
Estabrook, Holmquist and Kaczorowski say they were “repeatedly emotionally traumatized” and that they were not allowed to resist or protest Thomas’ presence on the team or in the locker room. Thomas changed next to them, and they say resisting could have resulted “in the women being removed from the team or from UPenn.”
During the Ivy League Women’s Championships, the women said separate locker rooms and changing areas were not provided for Thomas or for women who did not want to undress in front of Thomas. The lawsuit claims, “Harvard participated in the conspiracy with the NCAA, Ivy League, and UPenn to allow Thomas to participate in the Ivy League Championships and use the women’s locker rooms.”
Thomas is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
An NCAA spokesperson released a statement to NewsNation saying, “College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports, and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships.”
A spokesperson for Harvard told CNN the university does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit was filed one day before President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring trans girls and women from competing on girls’ and women’s teams for federally funded schools and colleges.