Today’s weather forecast is predicting cloudy skies with a high of 51 degrees and a low of 39 degrees. For the weekend it looks like those cloudy skies will just continue with a slight chance of rain showers on Sunday with temps in the low to mid-50s.

Former Penn swimmer Paula Scanlan speaks at MSU, trans students unify in response

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and conservative speaker Paula Scanlan spoke to a small audience at Michigan State University on Tuesday evening.

During her lecture, which was followed by a brief Q&A, Paula highlighted her experience competing alongside transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, criticized college campuses for accepting transgender people and urged the audience to stand up against transgender women’s presences in female spaces.

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.

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

Paula remembers the day her — up until then uneventful — college experience was upended by Lia Thomas. One day before practice, Paula recounted, her coach informed the team that Lia, 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.

Beyond her presence in the locker room, Paula expressed discontent with Lia’ success “smashing records” in the pool. In 2022, Lia became the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I national championship in any sport when she won in the 500-yard freestyle. She 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 Lia’s last college swimming event, Paula 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.

The first time Paula tried going public with her experience competing alongside Lia, it ended poorly. After reading an article on OutKick, a self-described “antidote to the mainstream sports media,” about Lia’s presence on the team, Paula 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, Paula’s teammates eventually learned that she was leaking information to the press. After that came to light, Paula recounted, some teammates requested that she be removed from the team while others told Paula to kill herself.

For a brief moment after graduating, Paula 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, she 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.

Following in the footsteps of speakers like Charlie Kirk, who has made a career of railing against indoctrination on college campuses, Paula 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, Paula 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, Paula said, pales in comparison to the need to prohibit minors from receiving gender-affirming care, something she called “horrifying.”

The future is uncertain for transgender people in America. President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda addresses much of Paula’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. However, it’s important to emphasize the importance of community and solidarity.

Jayci Simon: The story behind the Paralympian’s historic journey

Jayci Simon, may seem like an average college student.

She studies exercise science and kinesiology at Lansing Community College, hails from St. Johns, Michigan and plays badminton.

Oh, and she recently made history, winning silver at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games for Team USA, the country’s first-ever medal in mixed doubles badminton.

An illustrious badminton career was not always in the cards for Jayci, who played sports ever since she could walk: soccer, basketball and gymnastics to name a few.

At seven years old, she was diagnosed with Geleophysic Dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism that only 40 people had before her. Doctors told her she wouldn’t be able to play sports.

She continued to play basketball and other sports, but as she got older, it became harder. Other kids were growing and getting faster and, with her condition, Jayci couldn’t keep up.

In 2013, she participated in the World Dwarf Games at MSU, which she called an eye-opening experience. Two years later, she attended the Little People of America Conference mainly because they offered recreational sports.

Everything changed for Jayci in 2016, when she was recruited to play badminton. Her mother received an email after the LPA Conference, explaining her daughter’s proper fit as a badminton player.

Jayci became more involved in badminton, often attending camps and clinics — typically in Chicago. Her first international tournament was in 2018 in Peru, where she “fell in love” with the sport.

Miles Krajewski, her doubles partner at the 2024 Paris Games, met Jayci as her opponent in 2015. They didn’t really know each other but reconnected at the 2016 LPA Conference.

The qualification period for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games lasted from mid-2022 to March 2024 with the World Championships in Thailand, where the top six teams for mixed doubles advanced to the Paralympics. Jayci and Miles were the wild-card sixth team.

Jayci said the pair went to eight or nine international tournaments and competitions, fewer than in other countries, mainly because the two were self-funded — a difficulty when having to travel, dine and house in multiple countries. Her community lent a hand and Amy Simon, a single mom, worked even harder to help her daughter.

Jayci held fundraisers and people in the community dropped off soda cans. Amy Simon picked up a second job. She’s a school speech and language pathologist and created virtual sessions for extra money.

Jayci doesn’t have an official coach, another challenge she’s faced since starting badminton. She has an unofficial coach who she has to travel to Nebraska to see.

She brought her whole family to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, including her grandparents, a “surreal experience.” she described it as.

Jayci later found out that her mom and grandmother bought tickets before she qualified, confident in her chances.

Jayci and Miles played in the SH-6 mixed doubles division, which is for short-stature and standing athletes. There are six total divisions in four classifications: WH-1 and WH-2 for athletes using a wheelchair, SL-3 and SL-4 for athletes with lower limb impairments, SU-5 for athletes with upper limb impairments and SH-6.

The pair’s biggest match of the tournament came in the semifinal against India. Jayci knew it would be a close match heading in, and it went a full three sets and “brought out a lot of emotions.”

Though Jayci and Miles lost in the finals to China, the duo still brought home the country’s first mixed doubles badminton medal in the Paralympics.

For now, the 19-year-old college student who has traveled to Brazil, Turkey, Australia and about a dozen more countries — and recently visited the White House with other Olympians and Paralympians — is planning on staying in Michigan. Jayci isn’t worried about what’s next. Instead, she’s “soaking up” the Paralympics experience.

Based on original reporting by Emilio Perez Ibarguen and PJ Pfeiffer.

To end our last episode of the week, here are a few announcements!

Here is the MSU home Athletic line-up for the weekend…

Tonight

• Volleyball will play Michigan at 6 P.M. at the Breslin Center.
• Hockey will go up against Notre Dame at 7 P.M. at Munn Ice Arena.

Tomorrow

• Hockey will play Notre Dame at 8 P.M. at Munn Ice Arena.
• Men’s Basketball will go against Bowling Green at 6 P.M. at the Breslin Center.

Here’s the MSU events lineup for the weekend…

Today

• The Broad Art Museum will be hosting a screening of Larissa Sansour’s Sci-Fi Trilogy at their Broad Underground event at 7 P.M. Larissa’s films offer a dystopian exploration of outer space, the nation-state, archaeology, and history.

Sunday

• The Black Botany: Shea Tour will take place at the Broad Art Museum at 1 P.M. This event will feature Angelica Bajos, Community and Sustainability Coordinator of the MSU Beal Botanical Garden, who will take guests through a botanical deep dive into Esmaa Mohamoud’s exhibition COMPLEX DREAMS.