Lia Thomas Exposed “Male Genitalia,” Watched Female Competitors Undress In Locker Room, Riley Gains Says
“…they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress.”
Controversial transgender swimmer Lia Thomas reportedly exposed his genitalia to female competitors at a match last year, according to one woman who was forced to race against him and has since turned into a vocal advocate for female athletes.
Thomas became one of the focal points of the debate over transgender athletes last year after joining the UPenn women’s swimming team following three unremarkable seasons on the men’s team.
Thomas’ formidable wins against female competitors quickly garnered headlines, even as frustrated teammates anonymously told media their concerns over sharing a locker room with the still-intact male teammate or women who were passed over to place him on the team went ignored.
Now, Riley Gaines, who began to speak out in favor of preserving the integrity of female-only athletic spaces after tying with Thomas for fifth place in a national swimming competition, says that she and her peers were forced to share a locker room with the biological man at the match, with no prior warning.
"We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia. We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there’s a 6’4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia," Gaines told Fox News earlier this month.
"That to me was worse than the competition piece," she added. "Not even probably a year, two years ago, this would have been considered some form of sexual assault, voyeurism. But now not even are they just allowing it to happen, it’s almost as if these large organizations are encouraging it to happen.”
Last year, Thomas’ teammate told The Daily Mail that sharing a locker room with him was “definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women.”
The unnamed fellow swimmer explained that several team members had address the issue to their coach, but to no avail.
She said they were “basically told that we could not ostracize Lia” and that there “nothing we can do about it” and “that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.”
“It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel,” the teammate also said. “The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.”
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