UPenn trans swimmer case shows the consequences of today’s progressive advocacy combine

February 7, 2022

By John Ransom

Twenty teammates of UPenn’s transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, have spoken. 16 want her off the team, versus four-ish who expressed support for Thomas last week. 

All 20 demanded anonymity. 

Many demand anonymity because by a proportion of roughly 1 to 5, liberals have made the atmosphere so toxic that most people are now afraid to tell the truth on the record about how they really feel. 

That noisy 20 percent includes artists like Neil Young who can’t share an internet connection with Joe Rogan, after a lifetime of Young and others making money selling “counter-culture” music that was supported by free speech.  

And it includes sports media empire ESPN, which has featured mostly positive coverage of Thomas as she smashes NCAA swim records, competing against women who have no biological chance to win.  

Unfortunately, it also includes UPenn, that public institution of learning, which ignores the public and learns nothing. 

The 16 swimmers opposed to Thomas’ competing as a woman, issued a public, but anonymous letter to UPenn, asking the school not to challenge a new rule by USA Swimming that would require Thomas to be tested for testosterone levels before swim meets to be certain she doesn’t have an unfair chemical advantage. 

The letter comes after warnings that UPenn might sue USA swimming over the new rules, along with a letter directly from the university representing “several” (thus “four-ish”) of Thomas’ teammates offering support for her. 

The letter from UPenn in support of Thomas was unsigned and anonymous as well, most likely because the support of Thomas was paltry among the 39 swim team members. 

And the progressive censors also include publications like OutSports, which wants to de-platform anyone who suggests that transgender women might have an unfair advantage over their competitors who were born women. OutSports compares those opinions to murder in the same way people say Joe Rogan’s podcast has “killed” people, as was suggested by the Washington Post. 

What all of this rush to label free speech as murder or phobia or hatred really suggests is that progressives no longer understand what it takes to create a consensus in America; that the professional progressive advocacy organizers, which includes the media, have so perfected their machine that they can dispense with what the rest of us think to get their way.  

Because that’s what the NCAA did when coming up with the rules for trans athletes that allow Thomas to compete as a woman.  

It all but admitted it when USA Swimming proposed a change in the rules in light of Thomas’ domination over her competition. The rule change would measure testosterone and any other physical advantage a trans athlete might have over those who were born into their gender before being allowed to compete.   

One would think that would have been the starting point, rather than the endpoint for rules about trans competition in sports. 

But then, that would have given away what the progressive advocacy machine really wants: A candid admission from everyone, that in every way, trans people and other oppressed are exactly the same as everyone else, but maybe, also, just a little bit better.

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