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Former NCAA Division 1 swimmer Paula Scanlan, who was a member of the College of Pennsylvania’s girls’s group together with trans swimmer Lia Thomas, testified earlier than a Home Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday morning the place she spoke out about her expertise and revealed the impression Thomas’ presence within the locker room had on her as a survivor of sexual assault.
Scanlan, who now serves as a spokesperson and adviser for the Unbiased Ladies’s Discussion board, testified earlier than lawmakers throughout a listening to on “gender-affirming look after minors.”
![Paula Scanlan testifies before Congress](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/07/paula_scanlan.jpg)
Former NCAA Division 1 swimmer Paula Scanlan testifies earlier than the Home Judiciary Subcommittee on the Structure and Restricted Authorities on Thursday, July 27. (C-SPAN)
As a member of UPenn’s women’s swimming team, Scanlan instructed that college officers disregarded the considerations of the members on the group and instructed them that Thomas’ being on it was “non-negotiable.”
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“As soon as the season started, Thomas was main the nation in a number of occasions, whereas solely inserting within the high 500 in these occasions on the lads’s group. Thomas later grew to become an NCAA champion within the 500-yard freestyle – the primary NCAA champion in our girls’s group historical past program. Whereas lots of you already know this, what you have no idea is the expertise of the ladies on the College of Pennsylvania swim group,” Scanlan mentioned throughout her opening assertion.
“My teammates and I had been pressured to undress within the presence of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall organic male, totally intact with male genitalia 18 instances per week. Some ladies opted to vary in toilet stalls, and others used the household toilet to keep away from this. After we tried to voice our considerations to the athletic division, we had been instructed that Lia’s swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable, and we had been supplied psychological companies to try to re-educate us to grow to be comfy with the thought of undressing in entrance of a male.”
![lia thomas riley gaines ncaa swimming championship](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/05/Riley-Gaines3.jpg)
College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tied for fifth within the 200-freestyle finals on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022, in Atlanta. (Wealthy von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs)
“To sum up the college’s response, we the ladies had been the issue, not the victims. We had been anticipated to adapt, to maneuver over and shut up. Our emotions did not matter.”
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Scanlan spoke about an op-ed she penned for the scholar paper that mentioned the scientific variations between organic male and females solely to search out out hours after its publication, it was retracted with out her information.
“That is consultant of a larger situation – the destruction of free speech. As we speak, any dialogue sustaining the sanctity of ladies’s areas is labeled transphobic, bigoted and hateful. What’s bigoted and hateful is discrimination in opposition to girls and the efforts to erase girls and our equal alternatives, dignity and protected areas.”
![Lia Thomas enters the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1239310227.jpg)
College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas enters for the 200-freestyle remaining through the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022, in Atlanta. (Wealthy von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs)
An emotional Scanlan additionally revealed that the scenario surrounding Thomas’ involvement went past honest competitors. For her as a survivor of sexual assault, Thomas’ presence within the locker room created a larger situation.
“That is actual. I do know girls who’ve misplaced roster spots and spots on the rostrum. I do know of ladies with sexual trauma who’re adversely impacted by having organic males of their locker room with out their consent. I do know this as a result of I’m one in all these girls.”
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“I used to be sexually assaulted on June third of 2016. I used to be solely 16 years outdated. I used to be capable of forgive my attacker however violence in opposition to girls nonetheless exists. Allow us to not overlook the viral MeToo motion that empowered feminine victims to talk up. It casts a highlight on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and abuse, together with in scholarly and academic establishments.”
![Lia Thomas prepares for race](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/03/LiaThomasAP032822CROP.jpg)
Lia Thomas prepares to swim the ladies’s 500-yard freestyle remaining on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. (AP Photograph/John Bazemore)
Scanlan competed on UPenn’s swim group from 2018-2019 and from 2021-2022. Throughout her remaining season, Thomas grew to become the primary transgender athlete to win a Division I championship in any sport, successful the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.
Thursday’s listening to to debate the “risks and due course of violations of ‘gender-affirming care'” and the function of fogeys in these selections.
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