It was so easy and such an avoidable mistake.
All ESPN had to do for its customary Women’s History Month fluff pieces was not discuss anything that could be construed as wildly controversial or polarizing or divisive.
Instead, as they typically do, ESPN went with the worst possible choice — a choice that has the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” being compared to invertebrates.
To wit, ESPN dropped a glowing profile piece on Lia Thomas, the controversial transgender swimmer that has crushed all of his competitors en route to dominating women’s college swimming, as part of the company’s Women’s History Month initiative.
It was … not well received.
Trending:
Outkick Sports’ David Hookstead posted the clip to his Twitter profile where it was quickly denigrated:
ESPN celebrated Women’s History Month by promoting a special about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas……a biological male who destroyed real women in the pool. pic.twitter.com/gVLa0rz2NN
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) March 26, 2023
“In 2022, swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division 1 championship by winning the 500 [meter] freestyle,” ESPN’s narrator in the video says. “The Texas native competed for three seasons on the men’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania. She began her transition after her sophomore season.”
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That last bit from ESPN is particularly hilarious, given that it’s acknowledging that Lia Thomas competed as a man in three out of his four collegiate swimming seasons and also only began transitioning well after puberty — a cutoff (no pun intended) point for many when deciding if a transgender athlete should be allowed to compete.
A cursory glance at Hookstead’s replies reveals a level of fury and anger (for obvious reasons), but also a level of apathy (it’s ESPN, of course they’d pull this nonsense).
But the most powerful response to Hookstead’s post came from Riley Gaines, a former competitor of Thomas’s from the swimming world.
Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman. The @ncaa is responsible.
If I was a woman working at ESPN, I would walk out. You’re spineless @espn #boycottESPN https://t.co/DF3n5RWsmV
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 26, 2023
“Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title,” the fiery Gaines begins. “He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman. The [NCAA] is responsible.”
But Gaines wasn’t content just excoriating Thomas. No, Gaines took direct aim at the media titan propagating this nonsense to begin with — while issuing a stark warning to any woman working at ESPN.
“If I was a woman working at ESPN, I would walk out,” Gaines said. “You’re spineless [ESPN].”
Gaines and her biting criticism echoes that of Hookstead, who in a follow-up to his viral video tweet, offered the following take:
How can any woman work at ESPN after this?
The network is just openly mocking them at this point.
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) March 26, 2023
“How can any woman work at ESPN after this?” Hookstead asked. “The network is just openly mocking them at this point.”
It’s hard to dispute Hookstead and Gaines when it comes to women working at ESPN. Think about it.
Someone who has been a man for the overwhelming majority of their lives and was a positively unremarkable swimmer as a man is suddenly one of the greatest female athletes of all time and worthy of ESPN heaping praise upon?
Anyone who’s not already drinking the leftist Kool-Aid should be able to see the above scenario for the farce that it is.
And if you’re going along with it? Gaines had a good word to describe you:
Spineless.
