Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) released an ad targeting Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, saying “women’s sports are for women.”
Hartzler is seeking to replace outgoing Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
Thomas recently made headlines after her teammates raised concerns about the fairness of competing against her. Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team penned a letter saying Thomas should not be able to compete.
“Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female,” the letter states.
Hartzler raised similar concerns in her ad.
“Meet William Thomas, ranked No. 462 in men’s swimming. Meet Lia Thomas, ranked No. 1 in women’s swimming. Only one problem — it’s the same person,” Hartzler said.
She continued, “Some people are afraid to talk about it. Not me.”
Hartzler explained she is not going to “look away while woke liberals destroy women’s sports.”
Concluding the ad, Hartzler said, “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.”
Last week, Thomas was cleared to swim in the N.C.A.A. championships, as The New York Times reported.
According to N.C.A.A. guidelines, “A trans female (MTF) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.”
The Hill reported that Thomas has completed more than two and a half years of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
During an interview with The Washington Examiner, a female swimmer on the team said she tries not to be around Thomas “because the whole situation makes me so mad.”
She added, “I don’t think Lia is a bad person. She’s very quiet and kind of introverted … It’s just really hard for me to respect her at all because of what she’s doing to my team and what she’s doing to women in general and not caring.”