Keystone Today

A former teammate of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas recently sat down for an interview to talk about how protests were silenced by the University of Pennsylvania.

Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of Lia Thomas, has joined the efforts of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) as an advocate for the safety of women competing in their own sports and leagues. She will speak at the July 21 to 23 Summit in Denver, Colorado. Although fellow swimmer Riley Gaines has spent over a year speaking out against the negative impact of allowing swimmer Lia Thomas (who is biologically male) to compete alongside the women of the UPenn swim team, Scanlan recently decided it was her time to weigh in.

"Atrocious. Penn Athletic Department and its staff should be brought to justice for harassing, manipulating, bullying, controlling, obstructing and discriminating against its female swimmers," International Women's Forum Vice President of Communications Victoria Coley wrote in a June 5 tweet. 

Scanlan sat down for an interview with Matt Walsh to share her story. “The University wanted us to be quiet and they did it in a very effective way,” she said in the interview. “It’s not just about me and it’s not just about Riley [Gaines]. It’s about fighting for women and girls across the country, and that’s who I’m here for.”

Scanlan's interview with Walsh detailed her time spent competing alongside Thomas and how the University silenced their protests against the situation.

“I constantly kept waiting for these institutions to do the right thing, and honestly looking back I don’t know why I ever even trusted that they might. But I did have hope… that somebody would see what was correct, but it just never happened,” Scanlan said during the interview. “These institutions failed us and somebody needs to do something about it.”

Scanlan talked about the distress she went through because of her personal convictions and religious beliefs and the shaming her team suffered from the University, the athletic department and the lack of response from the NCAA. 

“That’s what is so scary to me about this whole thing. There’s no discussion here,” Scanlan said during the interview “Going into college, I was always under the belief that colleges were a place of free speech. I was so excited to have all these opportunities to listen to opinions from both sides. That is what I went to college for; that’s what I thought college education was. And then as these things started going on, I realized that they don’t have that. Their agenda is to have everyone believe what they want them to believe.”

Scanlan proposed that trans or nonbinary athletes should be allowed to compete in the men’s divisions, which would protect the women’s leagues and prevent those born biologically male from having an advantage in a proposed all-inclusive third category in which biologically female athletes would still be at a disadvantage.