Rachel Levine was named “Woman of the year” by USA Today this week, allegedly for being “one of the women across the country who have made a significant impact.” Given this qualifier, it is safe to assume one of the other candidates Levine beat out was University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas — especially since the winner or candidates for such an honor do not have to be actual women.
Thomas brought unprecedented attention to women’s collegiate swimming this year, albeit for the wrong reasons. Thomas is responsible for bringing awareness to the issue of transgender athletes competing in sports. After competing for three years on the men’s team as William Thomas, Thomas decided to identify as a woman and took a year off from school. After undergoing hormone suppressant therapy, William Thomas reemerged as Lia Thomas and started dominating women’s collegiate swimming. Despite being male, Thomas set numerous Ivy League women’s records and is poised to become an NCAA Women’s Swimming champion this weekend. These are monumental achievements and evidence Thomas was snubbed as “Woman of the Year.”
Granted, it is my belief only actual women should win any “Woman of the Year” awards. There were plenty of actual women who had significant accomplishments over the year and are deserving of the award. And, given the biological differences between men and women, there is a reason these types of awards exist in the first place.
Yet, a comparison between Levine and Thomas will show Thomas is more deserving. Levine saw a record number of people die as U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Levine handled the pandemic as poorly as anyone in America, as the numbers both from Pennsylvania and at the federal level testify.
Thomas, on the other hand, was at least beating women in swimming competitions. And if not for Thomas, many Americans would not be aware men can compete as women in collegiate sports. Moreover, they would not be aware of the significant biological advantages that men have, even after hormone therapy, and how they are taking away opportunities from actual women and thus harming women’s sports.
In short, if any nonwoman wins a “Woman of the Year” award, it ought to be the man racing as a woman. Not the person who oversaw a record number of people dying from a pandemic. Then again, maybe only women should be given these awards.
