Former Teammates of 'Lia' Thomas Speak Out on UPenn Federal Funding Freeze

The Trump administration, as we have been reporting, is cracking down on the hideously unfair practice of allowing "transgender women" - in simple English, men - to compete on women's sports teams. To that end, the Trump administration has been yanking federal funds from schools that allow this, and one of these schools is the University of Pennsylvania - UPenn. UPenn, you might remember, was the source of the "Lia" Thomas saga, in which the very male Thomas was allowed not only on the women's swim team but also in their locker room and showers.

Some of Thomas's former teammates are now speaking out in support of the Trump administration's actions.

After the administration paused $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, which FOX Business exclusively reported Wednesday, many of the women who had to compete alongside former transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas have spoken out in celebration of the funding pause.
Three of Thomas' former UPenn teammates, Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, provided a joint statement to Fox News Digital, via the Independent Council for Women's Sports (ICONS) praising the Trump administration's action.

The three young women were not shy about expressing themselves, either:

"We are so glad that Universities are beginning to see that there is a cost to openly harming female students on their campuses and we hope the pressure only increases. Penn and other universities within the NCAA, under NCAA policy and their own rogue leadership, have violated federal law and hurt women," the statement read.
"They have knowingly stolen opportunities and awards from women, placed women in physical danger, and facilitated the sexual harassment of female student athletes. Every woman on a college campus and under NCAA regulations should be assured of Title IX protections. Institutions that disregard the well-being of women have to understand they don’t get to rewrite or ignore federal protections that women rely on."

"Harming" is not mere hyperbole. These young women, forced to unfairly compete against men, face not only loss of titles and scholarships to men, but at times actual, physical injury.

'Promises Made, Promises Kept'—Trump Yanks Millions in Funding From Ivy League University

The worst thing may be that the UPenn women swimmers were initially told that Thomas would not be allowed in their locker rooms and showers, and only discovered the reverse was true when they were confronted by a man changing clothes in their space.

"Margot [Kaczorowski] only learned that Thomas had been authorized by UPenn to use the women’s locker room when [Kaczorowski] walked in the women’s locker room to find Thomas in front of her changing his clothing."

Fortunately, some sanity seems to be returning to this whole episode. The three young women, Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist, have filed a lawsuit against UPenn and the NCAA over the handling of this whole incident. The suit seeks to have all of "Lia" Thomas's awards and titles revoked, which seems only fair, given the fact that a mediocre male athlete can suddenly decide to "identify" as a woman and suddenly start winning competitions; a biological reality that some of these educational institutions and governing bodies of the various sports are having to be forced to acknowledge. Thomas, for example, in 2022, while competing in the Ivy League Swimming Championships, came in first in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle races; he broke several records and was the highest-scoring swimmer in that year - on the women's team.

This is changing now. And it's about time.

The "men on women's sports team" battle is still being fought and probably will be for some time. To help us help you keep ahead of this and all the other issues facing us today, consider upgrading to a RedState VIP membership. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60 percent off your membership.