Penn State speaker defends Lia Thomas, including men in women's sports
Last month, Jim Buzinski, co-founder of the LGBT-focused sports site Outsports, came and spoke at Pennsylvania State University's College of Communications.
In his speech, Buzinski claimed that laws seeking to maintain biological distinctions in sports are 'politically driven.'
Last month, Jim Buzinski, co-founder of the LGBT-focused sports site Outsports, came and spoke at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Communications. In his speech, Buzinski claimed that Lia Thomas “didn’t dominate” in the women’s swimming league the way female swimmer Katie Ledecky did, and that laws seeking to maintain biological distinctions in sports are “politically driven” to get votes.
Buzinski’s talk was “sponsored by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism and the Penn State Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity,” according to the video description.
[RELATED: Riley Gaines: Transgender issues are about the ‘sheer essence of humanity’]
Buzinski began by relaying his background in journalism and telling the story of creating Outsports. The page produces “LGBTQ sports news & commentary for athletes, coaches & fans.”
During the event, Buzinski said that the issue of having transgender women, or men, in women’s sports is “politically driven because it’s seen as a vote-getter in some cases.”
Buzunski clarified, however, that “there is a legitimate discussion over what should be the rules and regulations on transitioning and hormone levels and all that stuff. And I’m not a biomedical expert, so I can’t even get into that.”
Despite this, he believes blanket bans of men from girls’ sports are unfair and that such laws do not “put people first.”
When providing specific examples of men identifying as women in women’s sports, he referenced a 12-year-old boy who identifies as a girl from West Virginia to be an example of how transgender athletes do not necessarily dominate women’s sports.
Buzinski then said, “Everyone’s familiar with Lia Thomas, maybe? The swimmer from Penn. She didn’t dominate swimming the way Katie Ledecky dominated swimming, and no one wanted to ban Katie Ledecky.”
“Lia participated under the rules of the NCAA that was set at the time. She wasn’t cheating, she was following the rules. So, if you think she had an unfair advantage, and you can have a good faith effort, you can change the rules to tweak that,” he continued.
Buzinski then said, “I think too much of it is a reaction to the diversity of society.”
Campus Reform has published several reports on the “Lia Thomas saga” since the beginning of 2022. Recently, Riley Gaines, the female swimmer that Lia tied with in the NCAA championship, has been speaking out about her experience swimming against a male in the women’s division.
Across different campuses, Gaines has been protested and allegedly assaulted. Even leftist YouTube channel The Young Turks came to her defense when she was allegedly attacked.
The parties in this report have been contacted for comment and it will be updated as needed.
