A group of 16 female college athletes were accused of allowing transgender athletes to compete and being forced to use the women’s locker room with transgender swimmer Leah Thomas, who still has “full male genitalia.” A lawsuit was filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). ”
according to The Times and the Sunday Times16 female litigants accuse the NCAA of committing “institutionalized fraud and discrimination” in supporting and trying to get Thomas to participate.
The 156-page lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Atlanta, alleges that up to 300 female college students were forced to use the same locker room and shower facilities that Thomas used during his tenure. claims. She is on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team.
Thomas infamously won the 2022 NCAA Division I Swimming Championships. He won the women’s 500-yard freestyle, beating two female Olympic silver medalists.
The Pennsylvania Quakers win the 500-meter freestyle during the tri-meet between the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheer Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ‘s Leah Thomas. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
The lawsuit, led by Bill Bock, former general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, includes more than just swimmers. Also signing are female college volleyball players, tennis players and track and field athletes who feel the NCAA has a responsibility to support trans athletes who compete as women.
The complaint further alleges that the NCAA has made a “fundamental departure from the original meaning of Title IX” to protect women’s sports.
Since the Thomas controversy, the NCAA has updated its trans athlete policy, requiring transgender athletes to provide documentation from a medical provider verifying their transgender claim at least twice a year and within four weeks of the selection date for a championship event. required to be submitted.
Detail of the giant NCAA logo is seen outside the stadium during practice the day before the NCAA Men’s Final Four at the Georgia Dome on April 5, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Streeter Rekka/Getty Images)
The NCAA also said it would follow Olympic swimming rules, which currently prohibit participation by trans athletes who have reached puberty before transitioning. This rule would prohibit Leah Thomas from competing as a woman.
But Bock says the new rules aren’t enough.
“Each of the NCAA’s sponsors, and all sports organizations that value fair competition and safe sports, must recognize and reform the NCAA’s institutionalization of cheating and discrimination against women.” added. To hear them speak up for women and to distance themselves from the NCAA and its actions. ”
Riley Gaines, an advocate for women’s sports, is one of the women who joined the lawsuit. Gaines tied for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships. Meanwhile, four of the women involved in the lawsuit chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from trans activists.
🚨It’s official!🚨
I am suing the NCAA along with 15 other college athletes who lost titles, records, and roster spots to men posing as women.
The NCAA continues to clearly violate Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act. It’s about time someone did something…
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 14, 2024
The complaint further states that “without prior notice to the women’s swimmers competing in the 2022 NCAA Championships, the NCAA and one or more other state officials, or officials with apparent state authority… Changed the designation of changing rooms for women
Swimmers…go to the “unisex” locker room. It instructed the female swimmers and teams that Thomas had the right to use all designated locker rooms assigned to the female swimmers and teams. ”
“This change was made in order for Thomas, a fully grown adult male with full penis genitalia, to use the same locker room used by over 300 female student-athletes, and to separate male and female student-athletes from female student-athletes. The lawsuit alleges that the women’s constitutional right to physical privacy was violated, and the women’s constitutional right to physical privacy was violated. He says he has been subjected to humiliation and embarrassment.
Big news today…The NCAA continues to actively and openly discriminate against women based on their gender. We filed a legal demand last year, but they didn’t listen.stay tuned pic.twitter.com/pQ5cxfGqXg
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 14, 2024
Therefore, the 16 women are “entitled to declaratory relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorney’s fees,” the lawsuit states.
“What the NCAA allowed to happen to hundreds of female athletes in an Atlanta locker room two years ago was nothing short of exploitation and a shameful violation of women’s right to bodily privacy,” Bock told the newspaper in a statement. It was,” he said.
“NCAA President Charlie Baker, university presidents and athletic directors are expected to be called to testify before Congress tomorrow.
“The unfair advantage the NCAA gives male athletes when competing against women is as bad as the doping scandal I was involved with.
“Real March Madness” [a reference to the annual NCAA basketball championship] This is how the NCAA sold out hundreds of female student-athletes. ”
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