Photos courtesy of The Independent/Harry Warnecke/New York Daily News
NBC News published an op-ed Monday from a Purdue University professor comparing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball.
Thomas, a swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania, has earned several victories while competing on the women’s swim team. She competed on Penn State’s men’s team two years before starting the transition process. Recently, Fox News reported that Thomas made history as the first openly transgender to win NCAA Division I championship.
Cheryl Cooky, Purdue professor of American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, penned the opinion saying, “For anyone who cares about the advancement of sports, and women’s sports in particular, her win should be celebrated.”
“Women’s sports are situated at a paradoxical intersection wherein sex segregation is upheld through claims of biological difference, yet equality is prefaced on being treated the same and given the same opportunities as men,” Cooky wrote Monday. “If we are to change this, we need to ask some important questions. How does one advocate for equitable treatment while also adhering to the notion of biological difference? If separate is not equal in the case of schools, bathrooms, restaurants or other social institutions, can separate ever truly be equal in the case of sports? Would gender-based discrimination in sports be eradicated if sports were gender-integrated?”
While many critics have stated that trans athletes have an unfair advantage competing in women’s sports, Cooky said their assumptions “are not well-founded” and lack “scientific evidence.” Instead, she believes there is “a direct link between testosterone athletic performance,” citing “coaching and training, psychological makeup of an athlete, access to resources and equipment,” and other factors contributing to an athlete’s success.
Cooky suggested that those who oppose trans athletes in women’s sports uphold “societal and cultural definitions of what constitutes gender or what defines a woman,” which leads to “discrimination of athletes like Thomas.”
She went on to compare Thomas’ groundbreaking win to the likes of Robinson.
“Change in sports doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it linear. Major professional sports leagues like MLB and the NFL resisted racially integrating their player rosters… Today, athletes like Jackie Robinson are celebrated as ‘breaking the color barrier’ in sports, although that narrative often requires sanitizing, simplifying or rewriting a more complex, nuanced and contradictory history,” Cooky wrote.
“Many of the athletes who become the ‘first’ encounter resistance, backlash and opposition, especially from those who have historically benefited from the status quo in sports,” Cooky continued.
She added, “Part of what makes the ‘first’ stories, so compelling is the resilience, determination and love for the sport exhibited by these athletes and their motivation to break down barriers, despite the naysayers. Thomas, as the first transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA championship, deserves to be placed among the other firsts. She should be embraced in the history of progress that sports represent and recognized as the trailblazer that she is.”
In her efforts to praise Thomas for being her authentic self, many have expressed their opinions regarding Cooky’s op-ed, including Ryan T. Anderson, president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center. He rejected her comparison of the two athletes.
“If the analogy to Jackie Robinson was accurate, the logical conclusion would be getting rid of separate male-female sporting events the way we rightly got rid of separate black-white sporting events,” Anderson tweeted. “Skin color is irrelevant to athletics, sex is not.”
Abigail Shrier, journalist and author of the 2020 book “Irreversible Damage,” said Cooky’s viewpoint regarding Thomas’ place in women’s sports is a “Masterclass in Gaslighting.”
Jesse Couture, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa, supported the comparison.
“Excellent and important @NBC THINK piece by @ProfCooky on Lia Thomas and the gendered politics of collegiate sport,” he tweeted. “Adding to assigned readings as we speak. Will make a great addition to this week’s lecture.”
Earlier this month, the 22-year-old shared her story with Sports Illustrated while raising awareness for other trans kids to be comfortable with who they are.
“I just want to show trans kids and younger trans athletes that they’re not alone,” she says at the coffeehouse. “They don’t have to choose between who they are and the sport they love,” said Thomas.