Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the former UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived at the Serra on Vine, wearing a purple dress and stilettos — standing about 6-foot-5 — to accept the "Voice of Inspiration Award" at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Rainbow Labs, was sponsored in part by Los Angeles sports organizations such as the Dodgers and LA Football Club.
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Leading up to Thomas' speech, a mention of the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew light applause from the crowd, though no one from the team spoke during the program.
After mingling with the crowd and two drag performances, Lia Thomas took the stage to accept the Voice of Inspiration Award and proceeded to double down on finding purpose in trans activism.
But before that, a video montage played about Thomas, tracing the path from competing on the men's team as William Thomas, to entering the women’s competition in 2022 as Lia Thomas.
Thomas was portrayed as an athlete fighting for acceptance while facing backlash.
"Incredible shout out to everybody at Rainbow Labs for bringing me here and everybody and putting this all together," Thomas started.
"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 impossible mountain to climb, and I didn't know if I had the strength to do it."
Thomas credited having trans mentors who helped the swimmer reconcile a trans identity with athletics.
Thomas said, "It's only because of so many amazing, amazing trans mentors that I was able to find that strength and that courage to go out and be myself and finally reconcile my ‘transness’ and my swimmer identity and be able to compete as a now trans woman."
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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 those people and those mentors — and I'm so happy that organizations like Rainbow Labs exist," Thomas added, saying people reached out on social media with "messages of violence."
"If I had had an organization like that as a kid to give me the knowledge and language to describe my transness, how important that would have been. Because I faced a lot of harassment. I got a lot of messages of violence against me in my Instagram comments and DMs. I didn't 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 purpose."
EX-UPENN SWIMMER LIA THOMAS TO RECEIVE 'VOICE OF INSPIRATION' AWARD AT DODGERS-SPONSORED EVENT
"But I owe so much to those mentors before me that it sort of was clear that I had to be that next beacon in a line of torches going back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my purpose. That was what I was here to do," Thomas stated.
"And so to be able to be that next light for people is an honor I can't describe. It means more than anything. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do that. And so thank you all so much."
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.
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 folks" within the Los Angeles community.
"We are a community of queer fans, local leaders, supporters, and activists of the Los Angeles Football Club. And if you don't know, we follow sports because we've always been here. We've been athletes, we've been fans, we've been lovers of the sports.
"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 the awards were presented — one also went to a gender-nonconforming trans female named "Alok" — the event ended with a stripper show.
For an evening devoted to inspiration, the show’s final acts offered a strikingly different kind of message.
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