{"id":1392997,"date":"2022-03-21T23:45:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1392997"},"modified":"2022-03-21T23:45:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:45:19","slug":"nbc-op-ed-compares-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-to-jackie-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nbc-op-ed-compares-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-to-jackie-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC Op-Ed Compares Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas to Jackie Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnbc-op-ed-compares-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-to-jackie-robinson%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1392997&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">An op-ed featured in NBC compared famed Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to Jackie Robinson \u2013 the first black American to play professional baseball.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University professor of American and gender studies, the op-ed argues that Thomas\u2019 recent string of victories at the NCAA swimming championships, in which he beat out two silver Olympic medalists, \u201cshould be celebrated\u201d as an advancement of women\u2019s sports. According to Cooky, Thomas, a man living as a woman, has shattered the notion of the sex segregation of women that sports have often promoted.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHow does one advocate for equitable treatment while also adhering to the notion of biological difference?\u201d asks Cooky. \u201cIf 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?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After hailing the NCAA for allowing transgender people to compete, Cooky then argues that scientific evidence does not show that transgender people have advantages over women, even though Thomas, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/03\/20\/gwinn-lia-jussie-thomas-americas-biggest-cheater-hoaxster-fraud\/\">ranked<\/a> 462nd when competing with other men, has now suddenly dominated Olympic medalists.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.gettyimages.com\/photos\/university-of-pennsylvania-swimmer-lia-thomas-smiles-on-the-podium-picture-id1238574763?k=20&#038;m=1238574763&#038;s=612x612&#038;w=0&#038;h=a30IO4b6-RwBOlne-aS-tjTp10HIQRs8VMHE1dpY1kg=\" alt=\"University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas smiles on the podium after winning the 500 freestyle during the 2022 Ivy League Womens Swimming and...\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas. (Kathryn Riley\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAttempts to ban or limit the participation of trans athletes are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/03\/18\/978716732\/wave-of-new-bills-say-trans-athletes-have-an-unfair-edge-what-does-the-science-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">not based on science<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0she claims. \u201cInstead, they are rooted in societal and cultural definitions of what constitutes gender or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/16\/science\/lia-thomas-testosterone-womens-sports.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">what defines a woman<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch questions matter because sports are organized based on the belief of natural differences between men and women, and they are sex-segregated as a result,\u201d she adds. \u201cYet, this ultimately leads to the discrimination of athletes like Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recalling the landmark Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools,\u00a0<em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>, Cooky claims that sports have essentially been able to operate under a \u201cseparate but equal\u201d philosophy through sex segregation.<\/p>\n<p>The presumed physical inferiority of girls and women historically has justified, legitimated and excused the unequal treatment of female athletes,\u201d she exclaims, citing the\u00a0U.S. Soccer Federation\u2019s claim that \u201cthere were differences in speed and strength of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams, which partly explained any disparities in pay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Characterizing Lia Thomas as an agent of change, Cooky goes as far to compare him with the likes of Jackie Robinson:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"\">Today, athletes like Jackie Robinson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/mlb\/2022\/03\/16\/jackie-robinson-shoe-nike-75th-anniversary\/7062390001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are celebrated as \u2018breaking the color barrier\u2019 in sports<\/a>, although that narrative often\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/15182338\/how-story-real-jackie-robinson-shows-deeper-more-painful-side-civil-rights-legend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requires sanitizing<\/a>, simplifying or rewriting a more complex, nuanced and contradictory history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There remains though a cultural investment in celebrating sports\u2019 \u2018firsts,\u2019 whether that be Robinson as the first Black MLB player, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/1622559-wizards-center-jason-collins-becomes-nbas-first-openly-gay-player\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first openly gay active player<\/a>\u00a0in the NBA, the first nonbinary U.S. athlete to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/meet-first-nonbinary-u-athlete-124758927.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">participate in the Winter Olympics<\/a>\u00a0or the first woman to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/12\/13\/us\/vanderbilt-sarah-fuller-first-woman-score-power-five-spt-trnd\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">score in a Power Five<\/a>\u00a0college football game. Many of the athletes who become the \u2018first\u2019 encounter resistance, backlash and opposition, especially from those who have historically benefited from the status quo in sports.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\">Cooky is several months late to the Lia-Thomas-is-Jackie-Robinson game. In January, none other than Lia Thomas himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/01\/14\/transgender-upenn-swimmer-claims-to-be-jackie-robinson-trans-sports\/\">made<\/a> the comparison,\u00a0according to several teammates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u2018I try not to be around her because the whole situation makes me so mad,\u2019 an anonymous teammate told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cI don\u2019t think Lia is a bad person. She\u2019s very quiet and kind of introverted \u2026 It\u2019s just really hard for me to respect her at all because of what she\u2019s doing to my team and what she\u2019s doing to women in general and not caring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An op-ed featured in NBC compared famed Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to Jackie Robinson \u2013 the first black American to play professional baseball. Written by Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1392997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}