Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimming champion, has offered his thoughts on the transgender-swimmer controversy. Phelps described the case of Lia Thomas, the UPenn male swimmer who has been thrashing female competitors, as “very complicated.” He also compared the issue to doping and emphasized that there needed to be a “level playing field.”
Phelps is right that this is akin to doping (i.e., a form of cheating). He is also right that a level playing field is what’s needed in sports and is the exact reason we segregate the sexes in the first place. However, Phelps is wrong to say that this is “very complicated.” This is as simple as it gets — Lia Thomas is male and males don’t belong in female sports.