Philadelphia Inquirer: When we talk about Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, we're listening to the wrong voices

We need to invite real experts into any conversation or policymaking discussion that impacts trans people.

A groundbreaking twentieth-century history of transgender childrenLia Thomas, a 22-year-old senior on the Penn women’s swim team, holds the fastest swim times in the country among NCAA women in two freestyle events. She also happens to be a trans woman. Last weekend at the Ivy League Championships, Thomas won three titles. Her success has put her in the center of a national debate on trans women’s right to play sports.

Veronica Ivy has done a stellar job addressing inexpert arguments about unfair advantages in sports. Historian Julian Gill-Peterson’s 2018 book Histories of the Transgender Child addresses the medicalization and racialization of children’s bodies. Anne Fausto-Sterling has a long record of publishing peer-reviewed papers on the topics of sex, gender, development, and biology. Reubs Walsh has committed her academic career to investigating the links between neurodiversity, transness, and mental health. Sari van Anders researches sex and gender as it relates to the study of hormones and culture. Their work is all too often ignored or overlooked.

We need to invite real experts into any conversation or policymaking discussion that impacts trans people.

Read the article at the Philadelphia Inquirer.