Three of Lia Thomas’ swim teammates at Penn sue the school, saying inclusion of the trans athlete violated their rights
In the days following the lawsuit, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women's sports, and the U.S. Department of Education opened a probe into Penn.
A day before President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, three University of Pennsylvania graduates sued their alma mater over the inclusion of a transgender student in a women’s swimming competition.
The complaint focuses on the Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships that took place at Harvard University in February 2022, in which Lia Thomas, a transgender woman from Penn, was named Ivy League champion and broke records.
The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on behalf of three former Penn swimmers: Grace Estabrook and Margot Kaczorowski, who competed alongside Thomas in the Ivy League championship, and Ellen Holmquist, who qualified for the event at every opportunity while at Penn except 2022, when Thomas was on the team. All three have graduated.
The complaint says that by allowing Thomas to compete, Penn, Harvard, the Ivy League, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association “deprived” the swimmers of “equal opportunities as women to compete and win.”
It also says that by providing Thomas with access to the women’s locker room, the schools and organizations failed to protect the privacy of the swimmers.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to find that the organizations violated Title IX, declare that Thomas was ineligible to compete on the women’s team, vacate her records, and award damages to the swimmers who competed against her.
The swimmers are represented by Indianapolis-based attorneys, as well as a lawyer from Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center, the legal arm of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a Christian nonprofit that in the past led the opposition for same-sex marriage in the state.
Penn did not respond to requests for comment. Thomas could not be reached.
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Thomas’ ascent in women’s college swimming became part of the culture wars that have defined U.S. politics in recent years. Some Pennsylvania Republicans proposed a law banning trans athletes in 2022, citing Thomas as an example for its necessity.
Advocates for transgender rights noted that Thomas did not dominate every competition she participated in and has lost to swimmers who were assigned female at birth. And other transgender athletes applauded her for “lifesaving” visibility.
Thomas has said that she transitioned to living as a woman in college “to be happy, to be true to myself,” and not to achieve an advantage.
The 87-page complaint that revives the discourse around Thomas alleges that her women’s sports career was part of an Ivy League “campaign” to “impose radical gender ideology,” an effort that culminated in the 2022 championship.
The Ivy League wanted to crown Thomas as a champion to “normalize cross-sex competition in previously sex-separated sports categories and render inevitable nationwide acceptance of a new set of gender norms for college sports,” the lawsuit says.
On Wednesday, a day after the complaint was filed in federal court, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to withdraw funding from schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Following the executive order, on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education announced a probe into Penn and two other institutions — San Jose State University and Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association — over reported “violations of Title IX” in athletics. The announcement cites Thomas as the reason for investigating Penn.
And on Thursday afternoon, the NCAA announced changes to its policy on transgender athletes. Effective immediately, only athletes who were assigned female at birth can compete for NCAA women’s teams.
“President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.
William Bock III, an attorney representing the former Penn swimmers, said that Trump’s executive order is important but that only a court case can provide the relief his clients are looking for — such as removal of Thomas’ record and financial compensation.