Former UPenn swimmer celebrates Trump's women's sports order, says Lia Thomas saga was 'dark time'

Female athletes and advocates are celebrating President Donald Trump’s latest enforcement order, which bans transgender women from participating successful girls’ and women’s sports. 

Supporters accidental the determination restores fairness and information successful athletics, portion critics reason it unfairly targets and discriminates against transgender individuals.

Margot Kaczorowski, a erstwhile University of Pennsylvania swimmer, was among the archetypal to talk out. She and respective different Ivy League athletes person filed a lawsuit, claiming they experienced affectional distress aft competing alongside Lia Thomas, a transgender pistillate and erstwhile teammate.

"It was a precise acheronian time," Kaczorowski said successful an interrogation connected "America’s Newsroom." "We were forced to beryllium successful the locker country with Thomas, and aggregate girls connected the squad had expressed feeling uncomfortable with that."

US President Donald Trump signs the No Men successful Women's Sports Executive Order into instrumentality successful the East Room of the White House successful Washington, DC, connected February 5, 2025. President Trump connected Wednesday is signing an enforcement bid to prohibition transgender girls and women from competing connected sports teams that lucifer their sex identity, marking his latest determination targeting transgender rights.  (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

TRUMP EDUCATION DEPT TO PROBE SJSU, UPENN FOR POTENTIAL TITLE IX VIOLATIONS AFTER TRANS ATHLETE SCANDALS

According to Kaczorowski, the schoolhouse medication told the squad that Thomas’ information was "non-negotiable." Those who were unhappy with the concern were offered counseling services oregon advised to conscionable with the LGBTQ+ center.

"Kind of implying that we had thing incorrect with america for believing that it was wrong," she said. "I conscionable ever grew up nether the guise of reasoning this could ne'er happen. Yes, of course, women merit fairness and respect…. To person that benignant of stripped distant was a shock."

Their lawsuit alleges that UPenn administrators "invited the women to a speech titled ‘Trans 101,'" which led the women to judge that "if a pistillate connected the squad had immoderate occupation with a trans-identifying antheral being connected her team, that pistillate has a intelligence occupation and needed counseling."

Riley Gaines, big of OutKick’s "Gaines for Girls" podcast and a salient advocator for banning transgender women from pistillate sports, stood down Trump arsenic helium signed the bid connected Wednesday. 

Gaines has often shared her discomfort with sharing a locker country with Lia Thomas during the 2022 NCAA Championships. 

She described it arsenic "one of the astir violating experiences you could perchance imagine." 

Reflecting connected her beingness astatine the White House during the signing, the podcast big told Fox's Sean Hannity, "I conscionable consciousness vindicated… Every time since January 20th, I person been conscionable overwhelmed by God’s mercy that we surely bash not deserve."

Former NCAA swimmer Paula Scanlan echoed those sentiments during an quality connected "The Ingraham Angle." 

"It was the top time of my life," Scanlan said, though she called it "bittersweet" that an enforcement bid was indispensable to code the issue.

The enforcement order, titled the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order, prohibits individuals assigned antheral astatine commencement from competing successful pistillate sports divisions oregon utilizing women’s locker rooms and restrooms successful schools. It besides directs national agencies to enactment with sports governing bodies to enforce these rules beyond schools, including astatine the 2028 Olympic Games successful Los Angeles.

"Women’s sports volition beryllium lone for women," Trump declared earlier signing the bid astatine the White House, surrounded by dozens of pistillate athletes and advocates who had lobbied for the measure. "The warfare connected women’s sports is over."

TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON PROTECTING WOMEN'S SPORTS DRAWS RESPONSE FROM NCAA

However, the bid has sparked contiguous backlash from LGBTQ+ rights groups and civilian liberties organizations, who reason that it unfairly targets a susceptible colonisation and perpetuates harmful stereotypes astir transgender people.

"This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent portion of insubstantial smears an full radical of Americans," the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said successful a statement. "Every American should request that alleged leaders halt attacking susceptible radical and commencement doing their jobs solving existent problems."

Opponents besides constituent retired that determination is constricted grounds of transgender women dominating women’s sports, and that galore transgender athletes look important barriers to accessing competitory opportunities.

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"My medication volition not basal by and ticker men bushed and batter pistillate athletes," Trump said during the signing. "We’re conscionable not going to fto it happen. It’s going to end, and it’s ending close now. And nobody's going to beryllium capable to bash a damn happening astir it."

A pupil leads a radical of demonstrators successful Knoxville, Tennessee, successful protestation of the state’s 2022 transgender jock ban. (Saul Young/Knoxville News-Sentinel /USA Today) ((Saul Young/Knoxville News-Sentinel /USA Today))