- Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, tweeted that transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas ‘deserves our compassion’
- Notable conservatives among his 320,000 followers then piled on to criticize
- Thomas was born male but started going by the name Lia in 2020 after taking hormone therapy for around a year
- Lia has broken records for the fastest female swimming times in the country
- Schlapp urged people to see her story with empathy and compassion
- Some of the conservatives consistently responded referring to Lia using male pronouns suggesting she had transitioned to female to ‘win races’
- Those responding said compassion should lie with girls on the swim team who were now being beaten in the pool by someone who was born biologically male
Conservatives have come out on social media slamming Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and CPAC organizer, after he tweeted that transgender swimmer Lia Thomas ‘deserves our compassion.’
‘No matter what one thinks of Lia’s ability to swim with women her story deserves our compassion. It will be interesting to hear Lia’s pov [point of view] in 30 years,’ Schlapp tweeted over the weekend.
The 22-year-old transgender swimmer is the most controversial athlete in the world at the moment, making waves amid a passionate and polarizing debate about whether she should be allowed to compete against biological females.
After Schlapp made his empathic feelings known on Twitter, he was immediately taken to task by some of his 320,000 staunchly conservative users.
