"It’s not necessarily an achievement in my mind... Women's records are separate from men’s records. It’s its own distinct category" - Anonymous teammate of Lia Thomas
The LGBTQ community have fought tooth and nail to earn rights they were denied of for so long. And yes, there is so much love and support towards LGBTQ, there is also speculation and whispers of confusion surrounding transgenders competing in men and women's sports. Most recently debated is the women's NCAA swimming championship. The Lia Thomas story, although very public, is a hard and sensitive topic to discuss openly. We can always count on the media to get conversations rolling. CNN's Eric Levenson published Lia Thomas: How an Ivy League swimmer became the face of the debate on trans women in sports - CNN, and Fox News' Paulina Dedaj published Penn swimmer says Lia Thomas' participation 'ruins the integrity of the sport' ahead of NCAA championship | Fox News, goes to show the two opposing views. While both use excellent rhetorical devices to connect emotionally to their targeted audience, the Fox News article goes a step farther connecting to women athletes as a whole. CNN mainly focused on the LGBTQ community. Paulina, from Fox News, focused her entire article around a teammate (who requested to stay anonymous) who competes with Lia Thomas. The teammate stated, "I think there’s a way where you can still be your authentic self and be who you are and swim as who you are while not competing against women," she showing she wants Lia to be who she is and be happy and comfortable but don't diminish the work, time, effort and dedication of these women who have worked their whole lives to get there.
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