Three former swimmers for the University of Pennsylvania have sued the Ivy League college to expunge the records of transgender athlete Lia Thomas.
Alums Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist filed the suit on Tuesday, alleging they suffered emotional trauma after Thomas competed as a woman, destroying everything they’d worked their entire lives to achieve. The lawsuit was filed one day before President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological men from competing in women’s sports, the Fox News reports.
The three actual women claim that their former school, along with Harvard University, the NCAA, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents subjected them to harassment and abuse in violation of federal laws by allowing Thomas to compete on their team.
“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’ participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” reads the lawsuit.
2004 grads Kaczorowski and Holmquist, and Estabrook, a 2022 graduate, say they were “repeatedly emotionally traumatized” after Thomas was allowed to compete with them in violation of Title IX, and say that school officials pushed pro-trans ideology on them the entire time Thomas was on the team.
They also allege that school administrators invited them to a talk titled “Trans 101,” where they were the problem if they had issues with a “trans-identifying male” on their team.
School officials also allegedly warned them against speaking out about Thomas or they’d be labeled transphobes and risk not finding jobs upon graduation.
Hellbound and Down 