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

Hollywood – Passing swimmer Leah Thomas She resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.

Thursday night in Los Angeles, the former UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived at Serra on Vine, wearing a purple dress and heels — 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 Dodgers And Los Angeles Football Club.

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

In the lead-up to Thomas’ speech, a reference to the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew mild applause from the audience, although no one from the team spoke during the program.

LAFC and the Dodgers are among those supporting Thomas and LGBT activists

After mingling with the audience and giving two performances, Leah Thomas took the stage to accept the Voice of Inspiration Award and proceeded to redouble her efforts to find purpose in trans activism.

But before that, a video was released about Thomas, tracing the path from competing on the men’s team as William Thomas, to entering the women’s competition in 2022 as Leah Thomas.

Thomas is portrayed as an athlete fighting for acceptance while facing backlash.

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

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

“It makes me very emotional because I remember very well not long ago when I was 18 and I realized I was trans.”

Thomas, 26, continued: “And I feel very excited about the prospect of being able to be who I am now, but I’m very terrified to take these steps because I didn’t know any other trans people. I didn’t know – I barely knew what it meant to be trans.

“Being open and open about myself felt like an impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it.”

Thomas credits having transgender mentors who helped the swimmer reconcile his transgender identity with athletics.

“It was only because of having so many amazing trans mentors that I was able to find that strength and that courage to come out and be myself and finally reconcile my ‘trans’ with my identity as a swimmer and be able to compete as a trans woman now,” Thomas said.

Leah Thomas speaks for the first time since UPENN approved the Trump administration’s decision to protect women’s sports

Leah Thomas calls Trans platform ‘my goal’

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

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

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

The President even temporarily withheld federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over allowing Thomas to compete with women, although the University of Pennsylvania eventually became the third school to reject the President’s funding conditions.

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

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

“If I had an organization like this when I was a kid to give me the knowledge and language to describe my transition, how important it would have been. Because I faced a lot of harassment. I received a lot of messages of violence against me in my Instagram comments and direct messages. I didn’t know what to do.”

Speakers throughout the night described LGBT Americans as living under oppression and celebrated transgender people as heroes of the event.

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

Thomas remains undeterred, even after all the controversy, and calls the platform a trans influencer “my goal.”

Former swimmer Leah Thomas will receive the “Voice of Inspiration” award at an event sponsored by the Dodgers

Leah Thomas, a transgender swimmer from Pennsylvania, talks to her coach after winning the 500-meter freestyle during the NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

“But I owe so much to those mentors who came before me that it was clear that I had to be the next beacon in a line of torchbearers going back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my goal,” Thomas said. That’s what I was here to do.”

“So, being able to be people’s next light is an honor I can’t describe. It means more than anything else. And I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to do that. So I thank you all so much.”

Since Thomas’ inclusion in women’s team swimming (headed by National Collegiate Athletic Association), women’s rights activists like Riley Gaines — having competed against Thomas — have called for the loss of opportunities and awards for women due to the inclusion of trans athletes, which networks like ESPN have promoted.

Leah Thomas was quiet, but she wouldn’t leave

As the number of people speaking out against Thomas and similar issues, such as transgender volleyball player Blair Fleming, increased, Thomas began to lose some of the attention the media gave him.

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

Spokeswoman Daisy Chavez also spoke at the event, on behalf of the Los Angeles Football Club group, about her commitment to supporting “queer people” within the Los Angeles community.

“We are a community of queer fans, local leaders, supporters, and activists for Los Angeles FC. And if you don’t know, we follow sports because we’ve always been here. We were athletes, we were fans, we were sports fans.”

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“So our presence in this club reminds not only the club and the community, but the world that we’ve always been here. And so we’re cheering, full of joy and love for our local community, but we’re also representing our gay community, and we’re very proud to be there every step of the way.”

Once all the awards were presented — one of which also went to a transgender female named Alok — the event ended with a strip show.

In an evening dedicated to inspiration, the show’s final performances delivered a very different kind of message.

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