The former teammate of Lia Thomas calls the Democrats who still fight for Trans athletes in women’s sports

EXCLUSIVE: The former swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania Grace Estabrook was one of the Many young women who shared a pool and a costumes with the transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 2021-22 season.

As of 2019, when they first told him that Thomas would join his team, until his last year in 2022, Estabrook claimed The university pressed it repeatedly so as not to oppose the inclusion of Thomas in the team. Estabrook told Fox News Digital that the administrators tried to convince her that he would never get a job or enter the postgraduate school if he spoke against him and that any problem he had with the situation was because he had a “psychological problem.”

And among the practices and meetings that made her “uncomfortable and” impotent ” Woman of the year of the NCAA.

But now, in 2025, Estabrook is one of Upenn’s three swimmers who have filed a lawsuit against the university, the Ivy League and the NCAA about its management of the situation as the tides in the subject in the Court of Public Opinion.

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Fox News Digital contacted UPENN to comment.

Recent The data suggest The vast majority of Americans now oppose trans athletes in women’s sports. The NCAA recently changed its policy to prevent them from competing in the women’s category after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to address the problem last Wednesday.

Still, many Democrats continue To fight for trans inclusion in women and girls sports, and multiple states have not complied with the Trump order.

For Estabrook, who says he lived the experience of changing his clothes with Thomas in the room and threatened to not complain about it, the idea that elected officials still fight for a cause that guarantees that other women experience what he did is “depressing ” ”

“That is really depressing,” said Estabrook. “I just don’t know why someone would want to perpetuate women to great scales like this. I think that’s why we are doing what we are doing. It’s because we want a clear judicial decision that helps institutions to be able to establish clear policies To make sure this never happens again.

Estabrook’s trip throughout the situation with UpenN has presented frequent “depressing” moments.

Her locker was just a few meters from Thomas in the locker room, which forced her to go back in a corner for the good of her own comfort.

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“I would return to a corner that had low visibility and just tried to change as quickly as I could, and I had other teammates who would go to the bathroom stalls and change there,” said Estabrook.

“We were those who forced us to hide, it was very uncomfortable, and there was only this constant fear and interruption of peace as, ‘ok, I no longer have a safe atmosphere here’, not only physically, but physically, but physically, but also also physically.

Estabrook added that the situation put “incredible” stress both in his mind and his body, and interrupted his swimming capacity.

Thomas’s positive media coverage was the insulting cherry in addition to the situation for Estabrook. She said that many times, when she and her teammates traveled to a meeting, not only had to deal with Thomas’s anxiety in her space, but also a horde of reporters there to cover the trans athlete in a positive light.

“I just remember having felt, ‘this is so strange,” said Estabrook. “It simply felt as if it were all this celebration of Thomas and the entire movement of transgender ideology.”

“All the media I remember seeing or reading at that time held Thomas as this innovative figure of the transgender community … there was a celebration that was really pushed in our faces and forcing us to accept it.”

Estabrook said the most difficult time for the experience came in the Ivy League 2022 championship. He hoped Thomas was governed not eligible to participate. However, Ivy League allowed Thomas to swim. Thomas finally established pool records in each individual event in which the athlete competed and exceeded the winner’s podium four times.

Thomas performed a similar performance in the NCAA 2022 Championship. There, Thomas ended in an infamous tie with the former swimmer of the University of Kentucky, Riley Gaines. That tie finally caused the seed seeds that were given to Estabrook already innumerable other women expect when the experience led Gaines to speak and become an outstanding defender of the athletes of women who seek protection against trans inclusion.

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“He was very grateful for his courage,” said Estabrook. “I really feel empowered by the work that Riley Gaines has been doing and seeing women jump on that same train and start talking … … it made it easier for me to do the same.”

There was more hope last year after Trump promised himself during an interview of the Fox News City Council in October that, if chosen, would prohibit Trans athletes in women’s sports. Trump won the elections and Suggested output surveys The issue of Inclusion Trans played an outstanding role in the decision of many moderate voters.

Trump quickly fulfilled his promise, signing the executive order of “No Men In Women’s Sports” last Wednesday. For Estabrook, seeing that this comes to fruition has traveled a long way to affirm his political beliefs.

“I was very excited to listen to that and even more excited when that came true last week after taking office,” said Estabrook. “It is very encouraging to see that we have a president who supports us so much and is also seeing this according to reality.”

The demand for Estabrook, which has been presented with former teammates Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski, seeks to have all the records and praise of Thomas as a swimming woman revoked.

In addition to Estabrook’s demand, Trump’s Department of Education has launched an investigation in possible violations of the title IX that occurred in UPENN and has also advised the NCAA to Discard Thomas’s praise In the women’s category.

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