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A USA Swimming official resigned in protest of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, saying she can’t back a sport that allows “biological men” to compete alongside women.
Cynthia Millen, who had officiated USA Swimming meets for three decades, stepped down ahead of last week’s U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
“I can’t do this,” Millen wrote in her resignation letter, the Washington Examiner reported Thursday. “I can’t support this.”
Millen is now hoping others in the sport will agree that Thomas, 22, has an unfair advantage over female competitors after coming out as transgender in 2019 following three years on the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas has since smashed several Penn records this season — with one teammate finishing in second place in the 1,650-meter freestyle some 38 second behind her.
“I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport that allows biological men to compete against women,” Millen’s letter continued. “Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed.”
Millen said she would deem Thomas ineligible to compete if she were officiating a meet and called on her now-former colleagues to do the same.
I know that this is a thorny issue. I think that it's an issue of great complexity that, in many ways, defines our time.
I doubt that the brouhaha will die out until something intelligent is done. With future court involvement likely, it will, no doubt, be years.
