Parents of Ivy League swimmers and a young female swimmer pushed out of contention following biologically male, trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ dominance last week have both penned letters to the NCAA expressing concerns that speak eloquently to a cultural shift that goes well beyond the issue in university pools.

There’s been a great deal of worry that Thomas — who’s been wracking up commanding wins over female competitors — might be on the receiving end of insensitivity, to the degree that swimmers were apparently warned not to complain about the situation they faced, up to the point that young women were quietly enduring a naked male body in the locker room.

But where were the concerns for those swimmers, female at birth and protected under Title IX?

Parents of young Ivy League swimmers have written a letter to the NCAA asking exactly what the association thinks they’re doing to protect those girls and athletes.

As parents of Ivy League swimmers, from men’s and women’s teams across the league, we have witnessed firsthand the utter abandonment of women and girls this year.

We are furious and most everyone in our community is furious as well. Parents, coaches, swimmers, and rational, logical people know this is grossly unfair. Female swimmers have not consented to this. In fact, many of them expressly said no. What response did they receive?

Be quiet. A new ideology ruled. “Transwomen are women” no exceptions; the girls’ concerns: “transphobic.”

They courageously spoke to coaches about the injustice they faced in the pool. They expressed how uncomfortable the locker rooms were with male nudity. When they were turned away, they went to their athletic departments and administration. They were turned away again.

Athletic associations are cautiously asking: How do we balance fairness and inclusion? And they ask scientists to tell them the precise level to which a male body needs to be impaired to compete fairly against women.

But they are asking the wrong questions. These questions are misogynistic, degrading, and dehumanizing for women. There is no balance of fairness to assess. Women deserve fairness without caveat, and they should not be asked to shoulder the mental health of others at their own expense. A male body cannot become a female body. A woman is not a disadvantaged man.

Women’s boundaries, women’s bodies, their fair treatment, respect and dignity are not up for reimagining by men. Women and girls are not acceptable collateral damage in social change.

It’s time to defend women.

On the heels of that massive, the NCAA received another letter, this one from a swimmer named Reka Gyorgy, who was eliminated from further competition by Thomas’ win last Thursday — Gyorgy came in 17th in a field where only 16 advance.

“With all due respect, I would like to address something that is a problem in our sport right now and hurting athletes, especially female swimmers,” the letter read. “Everyone has heard and known about transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, and her case including all the issues and concerns that her situation brought into our sport. I’d like to point out that I respect and fully stand with Lia Thomas; I am convinced that she is no different than me or any other D1 swimmer who has woken up at 5am her entire life for morning practice. She has sacrificed family vacations and holidays for a competition. She has pushed herself to the limit to be the best athlete she could be. She is doing what she is passionate about and deserves that right. On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women.

“I’m writing this letter right now in hopes that the NCAA will open their eyes and change these rules in the future. It doesn’t promote our sport in a good way and I think it is disrespectful against the biologically female swimmers who are competing in the NCAA.”

…

“It is the result of the NCAA and their lack of interest in protecting their athletes. I ask the NCAA takes time to think about all the other biological women in swimming, try to think how the would feel if they would be in our shoes. Make the right changes for our sport and for a better future in swimming,” the letter concluded.

While the superficial issue at hand is the conflict between gender at birth and declared gender — and if the mere declaration of gender change is enough to allow fair competition — these letters also hit on something that’s become a much larger cultural issue, one on heightened display during the pandemic.

“[T]hey should not be asked to shoulder the mental health of others at their own expense,” the parents write.

It’s debateable depending on your aversion to risk, but isn’t that exactly what the world was asked to do during the pandemic once there was enough evidence that some people were at lower risk of serious illness? Is it possible that we were all mandated to mask up and vaccinate to assuage the often irrational fears of those who might be borderline hypochondriac?

Gyorgy’s letter gets at the issue in a slightly different way: weren’t these ladies harmed when the NCAA failed to protect them? Were the healthy who lost jobs and friends and the ability to associate also harmed for a virus that carried risks that, in hindsight, look more than a little inflated?

In short, these letters highlight a cultural tendency of late to intentionally put the healthy at risk to benefit the less healthy. To very nearly offer them as a sacrifice.

Does a culture that locks down the healthy and asks them to remain silent in the face of harm and live in fear of retribution have much of a future? Perhaps it will depend on how we choose to respond to the young ladies swimming in the NCAA.