Behind the Biochemistry building, where the event was held, around 15 transgender students and allies donning pride flags congregated for a "trans-awareness picnic" meant to inspire a sense of community and solidarity for queer students. An organizer emphasized the need for such solidarity in the wake of last week’s election results.

Scanlan’s lecture was hosted by Young Americans for Freedom at MSU, a student organization dedicated to promoting conservative ideas on campus.

In the shadow of Lia Thomas

Scanlan remembers the day her — up until then uneventful — college experience was upended by Lia Thomas. One day before practice, Scanlan recounted, her coach informed the team that Thomas, who swam for Penn’s men’s team through her junior year, would be joining the women’s team and that there’d be no further discussion on the topic.

Scanlan was shocked to see her teammates congratulating Thomas for transitioning and her coach’s apparent embrace of Thomas’ presence on the team. It was a far cry from Scanlan who "didn’t think that this was something that could actually happen."

Scanlan said Thomas’ presence in the women’s locker room was horrifying and damaging to herself and others on the team. In particular, she recounted how a teammate whose locker was next to Thomas’ chose to change in the private, single-stall family bathroom across the hall rather than change next to a "6 foot 4 tall, fully intact male."

Beyond her presence in the locker room, Scanlan expressed discontent with Thomas’ success "smashing records" in the pool. In 2022, Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I national championship in any sport when she won in the 500-yard freestyle. Thomas still holds two Ivy League women’s records, one for her championship performance and another in the 200-yard freestyle.

More than two years after Thomas’ last college swimming event, Scanlan complained that the NCAA has yet to update its policy on transgender athletes, stated that Penn did not "have my back" and criticized the Ivy League for not making a statement preventing future transgender participation.

Since 2022, the NCAA has deferred the decision on transgender participation to each sport’s national governing body. USA Swimming requires individuals transitioning from male to female to submit a request for competing, which is reviewed by a three-person panel on a case-by-case basis. FINA, the world governing body for swimming, has outright banned transgender women from competing with other women on the international stage.

"We’ve actually passed legislation on the sports side in over half the states in the country," Scanlan said, referring to the 25 states that have passed restrictions on transgender students from participating on sports teams aligning with their identity. "That’s already been a great win."

Scanlan: "I’ve lost friends for speaking out, but it was worth it."

The first time Scanlan tried going public with her experience competing alongside Thomas, it ended poorly. After reading an article on OutKick, a self-described "antidote to the mainstream sports media," about Thomas’ presence on the team, Scanlan reached out to the article’s author to inform him that "the situation is actually much worse."

Although she attempted to remain anonymous while reaching out to the author, Scanlan’s teammates eventually learned that she was leaking information to the press. After that came to light, Scanlan recounted, some teammates requested that she be removed from the team while others told Scanlan to kill herself.

"What was so ironic about all of this is that the majority of the girls on my team agreed with me," Scanlan said. "That’s when I started to realize how deep this thing goes. There’s this fear of even saying what you know yourself."

For a brief moment after graduating, Scanlan seemed to have moved on from the turmoil that loomed over her time at Penn. Holding a computer science degree from an Ivy League school, Scanlan began working in finance in New York City until, one day, she left it all behind to re-enter the culture war, this time as an ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum.

Hearing stories like a high school volleyball player being injured by a transgender student’s spiked ball and the "thousands of medals that have been stolen from girls" pushed Scanlan in this direction, a path she said has cost her friends but has been entirely worthwhile. Now a fully integrated member of the right-wing speaker ecosystem, Scanlan spends her time speaking at college campuses, traveling to Republican events and creating content for her online following.

Following in the footsteps of speakers like Charlie Kirk, who has made a career of railing against indoctrination on college campuses, Scanlan took aim at professors who she claims are disconnected from reality for being unable to "look in this room and tell you who is male and female." Professors choosing to cancel classes in the wake of the recent election, she added, is another way colleges are "babying" students.

In her closing remarks, Scanlan encouraged students to "stand up and say what everyone else is thinking" when it comes to transgender athletes participating in sports. However, the conversation around athletics, Scanlan said, pales in comparison to the need to prohibit minors from receiving gender affirming care, something she called "horrifying."

"For the first time in my journey on this, I actually do have hope," Scanlan said, referencing Republicans’ sweeping victory in the recent election. "I feel like I can finally see the finish line on this issue."

Trans-awareness picnic

When international relations and comparative cultures and politics junior Lyra Opalikhin heard that Scanlan was coming to campus, she initially hoped the university would put out some statement denouncing Scanlan’s anti-transgender messaging. When that statement never arrived, Opalikhin took it upon herself to organize a space for transgender students and allies to support each other.

The set up included a few blankets to brave the cold in, some pride flags planted into the ground and boxes of Cottage Inn pizza behind the Biochemistry building. Regardless of scale, Opalikhin said, it was crucial to hold a space for queer students to feel safe and unified, particularly following the election.

"I wanted to provide a space where they could just find other friends, make some more community, and just feel, at least for now, safe in this environment," Opalikhin said. "The overall, wider MSU community is with them and we’re supporting each other."

Sports journalism junior Lucas Trainor is no stranger to confronting demonstrators on campus that threaten his identity. Compared to those acts, which usually draw attention from onlookers and the demonstrator themselves, this picnic was quieter. Their chosen response to Scanlan’s event, it appeared, was to outright ignore it and find joy elsewhere.

The future is uncertain for transgender people in America. President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda addresses much of Scanlan’s concerns while also promising to cut federal funding for schools that push "radical gender ideology" and pass a bill making the government exclusively recognize male and female genders. In the face of this uncertainty, however, Trainor emphasized the importance of community and solidarity.

"If we have nothing else, we have each other," Trainor said.