Joe Rogan: Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas Is an 'Assault on Women's Sports'
Podcaster weighs in on 'champion' 'female' swimmer dominating women's championships
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Podcaster Joe Rogan has weighed in on the controversy surrounding transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, declaring that the biological male's domination of female swimming is an "assault on women's sports."
Thomas recently triggered widespread outrage after taking first place in the NCAA women's championships.
During his show, "The Joe Rogan Experience," the host provided his two cents on Thomas being celebrated as the best "women's swimmer."
He argues that the situation is actually "terrible" for the transgender movement.
"What it is now is not good," said Rogan.
"What it is now is assault on women's sports, and the idea that anybody would think it's fair that someone who was number 462 as a man, 462 in the nation is number one as a woman a year later, and that's fair."
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Thomas – a biological male – is a fifth-year senior who swam for three years on the men's team before "transitioning" to "female."
Thomas skyrocketed from being ranked the 462nd-best male college swimmer to the No. 1-ranked female collegiate swimmer.
Fellow comedian and guest Yannis Pappas joked, "You don't think maybe it was her passion for swimming that got her to number one? Or changing diet?"
Rogan replied, "Could be, maybe just becoming her true self."
"But that might be the woke straw that breaks society's camel's back," Rogan continued.
"Women are so frustrated, or parents.
"If your daughter is competing, and they're competing against a trans woman, it's not fair.
"It's just not fair.
"No matter what anybody says."
Rogan declared, "There’s this nonsense idea of like, well, there's outliers — there's outliers and then there's biological males, right?
"That's beyond outliers."
Rogan noted that sport is where people draw a line as to what is acceptable or not, especially when biological males can easily outperform females because of the advantages provided by nature.
"Well, it's interesting because in all other aspects of society, it's pretty much a given that, you know, a person can become trans and change their name and we're all pretty accepting of it," the Spotify star stated.
"Where people have the most pushback is in sports, athletic competition.
"That's where the real pushback is, right?
"Where people like 'Hey, f*** right. This is not fair.'
"This is clearly not fair, is a reason why we have a distinction between men and women's sports."
Pappas pointed out that typically liberals are vehement supporters of equality, equity, and ensuring a level playing – except when it comes to transgender athletes competing in sports.
"And it's ironic because the people on that side usually always champion equality and nobody having an advantage and you know, the people who are maybe disenfranchised or less capable should have an equal opportunity and by throwing someone like Lia Thomas in there, you're kind of — that's the opposite of that," Pappas noted.
Rogan warned that transgender athletes obliterating females in competition may have unintended consequences in advancing the trans movement.
"I think it's also probably terrible for the whole trans movement, because it makes people more cynical about what the positive aspects of it are, and it makes people more, you know, less likely to accept it, because they think of, now they think of trans people and trans rights, and they connect it to this athletic thing," the comedian/veteran UFC color commentator.
"It's probably making people more distrustful or more upset and less accepting."
Joe Rogan explains why letting trans athletes such as Lia Thomas compete Is “terrible for the trans movement”, because it makes people “cynical” and “less likely” to accept trans people and trans rights. pic.twitter.com/ETnWHPtm4b
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) March 31, 2022
In January, Rogan appeared on "The Tim Dillon Show," where he said, "The swimmer that's like lapping all these biological women, that’s f***ed because they don’t have a choice they have to compete.”
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Last week, House Republicans introduced a resolution declaring Florida's Emma Weyant the "rightful winner" of the 500-yard freestyle event at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships over Thomas.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a proclamation that declared Weyant the "real winner" of the NCAA Women's 500-yard freestyle swim competition instead of Thomas from the University of Pennsylvania.
