On March 14, 2024, Riley Gaines, along with over a dozen college athletes, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, alleging that the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by allowing Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to compete in an NCAA swim team competition. The group of college athletes filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court in Atlanta.
Thomas originally swam for UPenn’s men’s team in 2017. However, in May 2019 she began hormone replacement therapy, and by May 2021 she met the NCAA hormone replacement requirements to swim on UPenn’s women’s team.
Thomas went on to win the women’s 500-yard freestyle event in March 2022, and she became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I Title.
The lawsuit filed against the NCAA and the University System of Georgia, which hosted the championship, alleges that the NCAA “serially violated Title IX in 2022 by purposefully adopting and amending policies” to allow Lia Thomas to compete amongst the UPenn women’s swim teams during NCAA competitions.[2]
The lawsuit claims that Thomas’s participation in the women’s race and her access to the women’s locker rooms during the event is “a continuing pattern and practice of discrimination against women in violation of Title IX.”[3]
The lawsuit also claims that the NCAA violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause “by treating women unequally in comparison to men, depriving women of competitive opportunities equal to those afforded men, and violating women’s right to bodily privacy.”[4]
In a statement regarding this lawsuit, the NCAA stated that it will continue to “make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships.”[5]
The plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit demand that the NCAA strip any titles and awards given to transgender athletes who competed in women’s events and revise all records.[6] The plaintiffs also seek to have a judge order the NCAA to stop enforcing and implementing its transgender rules.[7]
[1] Featured Image: https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2024/riley-gaines-sues-ncaa-transgender-policy-1234770946/
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/sport/ncaa-title-ix-violations-transgender-spt-intl/index.html
[3] https://theathletic.com/5342387/2024/03/14/ncaa-transgender-lawsuit-lia-thomas/
[4] https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/sport/ncaa-title-ix-violations-transgender-spt-intl/index.html
[5] https://theathletic.com/5342387/2024/03/14/ncaa-transgender-lawsuit-lia-thomas/
[6] https://theathletic.com/5342387/2024/03/14/ncaa-transgender-lawsuit-lia-thomas/
[7] https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/sport/ncaa-title-ix-violations-transgender-spt-intl/index.html
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