Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has become a focal point in the ongoing conversation surrounding transgender athletes’ rights and women’s comfort in sports environments. A recent congressional hearing featured testimony from former teammates expressing their discomfort at having to undress next to Thomas, leading to a wider debate on locker room dynamics and the rights biological women have to a safe, women-only space.

The debate over transgender participation in women’s sports has intensified after former teammates of Lia Thomas spoke out against having to undress next to her, a biological male. Lia Thomas, who became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming title at the Ivy League Penn in 2022, is now at the centre of concerns over the dignity and safety of women in the locker room.

Former teammate Paula Scanlan, addressing the House Judiciary Committee, voiced discomfort at undressing “in the presence of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall, biological male, with fully intact male genitalia, 18 times per week.” Scanlan’s plea brings into focus a deeply embedded issue in the fight for women’s only spaces, a scenario that was truly ghoulish in that women who were uncomfortable were treated as bigoted people.

The frustration expressed by Scanlan and her teammates reflects a growing divide in the conversation around transgender individuals in sports. On the one hand, some believe in the absolute necessity of supporting and validating the identities of transgender individuals. On the other, there are those who feel that the rush to do so can put women in danger as they no longer enjoy the privacy and safety of women-only spaces.

The women were confronted with the university’s response, which appears to favour Maoist demands of ‘reeducation’ over dialogue and very simple solutions. The university’s approach only serves to deepen the divide, positioning women as obstacles rather than as the affected group they have the potential to become. Some even chose to change in bathroom stalls or use the family bathroom to avoid the situation.

Riley Gaines, another swimmer, has expressed the idea that the NCAA should create separate locker rooms for transgender athletes, reflecting on her discomfort at being exposed to Thomas’s male genitalia after a meet. Her statement emphasizes a lack of consent and communication, and she has even compared the situation to a form of sexual assault or voyeurism.

This situation brings to the fore a critical and sensitive challenge that modern society must face: how to reconcile transgender individuals’ obvious desire to fit in without sacrificing those who face the real detrimental outcomes of these decisions when things go very wrong. It’s not a simple matter of one side being right and the other wrong; instead, it requires a nuanced and logical approach, one solution of which would be to have separate non-gendered changing facilities which would allow for individuals to either seek the comfort of the sex-segregated option or to intermingle with others.

The events surrounding Thomas’s participation in women’s sports and the reactions of her teammates reflect broader cultural tensions, a clashing of values and beliefs. If logic were the prevailing force, it would have been easily fixed given the suggestion above. What must stop happening, however, is women becoming the sacrificial lamb for these ideological appeasement exercises, where it is always their spaces that are taken over—not men’s, but women’s spaces.

Fundamentally, it must be stressed that transgender people are welcome in sports; however, if we are ever going to approach this topic with the aim of resolution, we must put ideology (left or right) aside and come up with sensible plans. Whether that be separate changing facilities for trans individuals or separate sporting categories, it is undeniable that women should not be treated as monsters for vocalising their deep discomfort at what is being foisted upon them in the name of ideological appeasement.