Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan discussed her views on transgender women being allowed to compete in women’s sports at the University of Kentucky’s Young Americans for Freedom “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” event.
The event, held at UK’s Gatton Student Center on Thursday, Dec. 5, was open for all UK students and Lexington community members.
The event began with Scanlan discussing her experience swimming with former UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship, and ended with a Q&A section.
Scanlan said allowing Thomas to compete on the women’s swim team had a harmful effect on some of the team members.
“It was disappointing when (s)he bumped off a girl from our team every single time he competed,” Scanlan said. “Because swimming is a limited roster sport, and there’s only so many people that can go.”
The former UPenn swimmer said her university tried to stop Scanlan and her swim team members from talking about Thomas publicly.
“They sat us down and they said, ‘If you ever speak to the media, you will regret it,’” Scanlan said. “They told us we would spend the rest of our lives tainted by this, they told us we would never be able to find a job.”
According to Scanlan, while discussing her time swimming with Thomas, she said she was unable to fully express her opinion on transgenderism in women’s sports when writing an editorial for her university’s student paper.
“They published the article, and within two hours of it being published, it was retracted, with no notice to me, no notice to any of the readers,” Scanlan said. “They just pretended like it didn’t happen.”
Scanlan declined to comment following the event.
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) Chairwoman and event host Emma McDaniel said she chose the topic of the event after creating a poll for YAF members to decide what subject they wanted to hear about the most.
McDaniel said discussing topics involving gender equality and transgender athletes in sports needed to happen more often.
“It’s important to have that discussion because there’s not a lot of heat about it and there’s not a lot of conversation happening,” McDaniel said. “There should be a space to have educational conversations and peaceful words.”
YAF member and event volunteer, political science sophomore Brady Salmon, said he was most looking forward to the Q&A section of the event.
Many of the questions involved topics like gender-affirming care, Scanlan’s Christian faith and the “woke-mind virus” and its impact.
“I’m wondering what questions people are going to ask and if they disagree with her (Scanlan),” Salmon said. “I’m curious to see how she’ll handle it.”
Before, during and after the event, a number of protesters gathered outside of the event’s doors, like UK electrical engineering senior Kae Brandenburg, who said they attended the event to protest people being “hateful” towards transgender athletes.
Brandenburg said as a transgender person, they wanted to be treated just the same as any other individual.
“If it doesn’t involve you, then why do you care so much,” Brandenburg said. “You know, it’s not that big of a deal, but people make it a big deal.”
Some protesters, like Trinity Ward, although not transgender, said it was still just as important to protest events like “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” as a cisgender woman.
“With a community so small, we need to be allies,” Ward said. “We need to advocate just as hard, and I don’t really know how you can see someone being discriminated and persecuted against and not care.”
Ward, a former swimmer for UK, said she was in Lexington when she heard about the event.
“I happened to be in town, heard this event was going on and wanted to show that this is not what University of Kentucky students or a lot of people wanted to have on campus,” Ward said.
Ward also said the event was “insulting” to people involved in sports.
“It’s pretty crazy to me that people have the audacity to say that trans women are a threat to women in sports when we have had men using their power to sexually harass and rape women for decades in sports,” Ward said.
Salmon said the event served as a way for people who were uneducated on the topic to learn more about “transgenderism” in athletics.
“In an event like this, it’s a great way to hear both sides of the point of view, which is very important,” Salmon said.
According to Salmon, he had no issues with the protesters that arrived at the event.
“Free speech is very important to us,” Salmon said. “Which is why we’re (YAF) perfectly fine with anyone who disagrees with her (Scanlan) to come in.”
