Ex-UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas speaks after accepting ‘Voice of Inspiration’ Award

HOLLYWOOD – Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.

On Thursday evening in Los Angeles, the previous UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived on the Serra on Vine, carrying a purple costume and stilettos — standing about 6-foot-5 — to simply accept the “Voice of Inspiration Award” on the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards.

The occasion, organized by the nonprofit Rainbow Labs, was sponsored partly by Los Angeles sports activities organizations such because the Dodgers and LA Football Club.

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Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas finishes eighth within the 100 freestyle on the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19, 2022. (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports)

Leading as much as Thomas’ speech, a point out of the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew mild applause from the gang, although nobody from the staff spoke throughout this system.

LAFC, Dodgers Among Those Backing Thomas And LGBT Activists

After mingling with the gang and two drag performances, Lia Thomas took the stage to simply accept the Voice of Inspiration Award and proceeded to double down on discovering goal in trans activism.

But earlier than that, a video montage performed about Thomas, tracing the trail from competing on the lads’s staff as William Thomas, to getting into the ladies’s competitors in 2022 as Lia Thomas. 

Thomas was portrayed as an athlete combating for acceptance whereas dealing with backlash.

“Incredible shout out to everybody at Rainbow Labs for bringing me here and everybody and putting this all together,” Thomas began. 

Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” on the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. (Alejandro Avila/OutKick)

“It makes me very emotional because I remember all too well not that long ago being 18 and just realizing that I’m trans.”

Thomas, 26, continued, “And feeling so excited at the prospect of being able to be who I am, but feeling so terrified to take those steps because I didn’t know any other trans people. I didn’t — I barely knew what being trans meant.

“Being open and out in myself felt like this unimaginable mountain to climb, and I did not know if I had the energy to do it.”

Thomas credited having trans mentors who helped the swimmer reconcile a trans identity with athletics.

Thomas said, “It’s solely due to so many superb, superb trans mentors that I used to be capable of finding that energy and that braveness to exit and be myself and eventually reconcile my ‘transness’ and my swimmer id and have the ability to compete as a now trans girl.”

LIA THOMAS SPEAKS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE UPENN AGREED TO TRUMP ADMIN RESOLUTION TO PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTS

Lia Thomas Calls Trans Platform ‘My Purpose’

After Thomas joined the competition, female athletes, including OutKick’s Riley Gaines, spoke up to denounce men playing in women’s sports.

During the 2024 campaign trail, then-President-elect Donald Trump proved to be a big supporter of Gaines and other women, raising concerns about competing against men.

Their influence led to Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports.

The president even paused federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over allowing Thomas to compete with women, though eventually UPenn became the third school to reject the president’s funding conditions.

“And I’m so grateful for them — for these folks and people mentors — and I’m so blissful that organizations like Rainbow Labs exist,” Thomas added, saying people reached out on social media with “messages of violence.”

Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. ( Alejandro Avila/OutKick)

“If I had had a corporation like that as a child to provide me the data and language to explain my transness, how necessary that will have been. Because I confronted loads of harassment. I acquired loads of messages of violence towards me in my Instagram feedback and DMs. I did not know what to do.”

Speakers throughout the night cast LGBT Americans as living under oppression and celebrated transgender-identifying people as the event’s heroes.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and Thomas’ inclusion has also sparked controversy over allowing men to share women’s locker rooms.

Thomas remains undeterred, even after all the controversy, calling a platform as an influential trans figure “my goal.”

EX-UPENN SWIMMER LIA THOMAS TO RECEIVE ‘VOICE OF INSPIRATION’ AWARD AT DODGERS-SPONSORED EVENT

Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks to her coach after winning the 500-meter freestyle during an NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

“But I owe a lot to these mentors earlier than me that it form of was clear that I needed to be that subsequent beacon in a line of torches going again a whole lot of years of trans folks. That was my goal. That was what I used to be right here to do,” Thomas stated.

“And so to have the ability to be that subsequent mild for folks is an honor I am unable to describe. It means greater than something. And I’m so grateful for the chance to do this. And so thanks all a lot.”

Since Thomas’ inclusion in collegiate women’s swimming (presided over by the NCAA), women’s rights activists like Riley Gaines — having competed against Thomas — have called out the loss of opportunities and awards for women due to the inclusion of trans athletes, which networks like ESPN have promoted.

Lia Thomas Was Quiet, But Won’t Go Away

As more people spoke up against Thomas and similar cases, like trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming, Thomas started to lose some of the favor awarded by the media.

The tone of the evening reflected an effort to move mainstream American culture toward a fuller embrace of LGBT identity and activism.

Also speaking at the event, on behalf of an LA Football Club group, spokeswoman Daisy Chavez shared a commitment to supporting “queer of us” within the Los Angeles community.

“We are a group of queer followers, native leaders, supporters, and activists of the Los Angeles Football Club. And if you do not know, we observe sports activities as a result of we have all the time been right here. We’ve been athletes, we have been followers, we have been lovers of the sports activities.

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“And so our presence with this club reminds not just the club, the community, but the world that we’ve always been here. And so we cheer, full of joy and love for our local community, but also we represent for our queer folks, and we’re so proud of being there every step of the way.”

Once all of the awards have been introduced — one additionally went to a gender-nonconforming trans feminine named “Alok” — the occasion ended with a stripper present.

For a night dedicated to inspiration, the present’s remaining acts provided a strikingly totally different type of message.

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