... Death, 21-Year-Old Lia Smith Felt the Brunt of the Attack on Trans Athletes

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Editor's note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It's staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.


Before Her Death, 21-Year-Old Lia Smith Felt the Brunt of the Attack on Trans Athletes

https://www.them.us/story/lia-smith-vermont-trans-trump-transphobia-suicide-middlebury 🔗

Samantha Riedel (5 Jan 2026)

Before Lia Smith's death last October, the transgender college student and former diver expressed fears for her safety under the Trump administration and faced transphobia in and out of school athletics, Smith's friends and family told The New York Times this week.

Smith, a 21-year-old junior computer science and statistics student at Vermont's Middlebury College, was found dead on October 23, 2025, four days after her father reported her missing and a day after the start of Middlebury's 2025 diving season. Her death was ruled a suicide by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office. Smith reportedly did not leave a note.

In interviews with the Times published Monday, Smith's family and those who knew her at Middlebury said that the athlete was increasingly distressed last year, in part due to the Trump administration's attacks on trans athletes as well as an anti-trans harassment campaign aimed at her. Smith's personal information — including her deadname — was posted on the anti-trans social media page "HeCheated" last January, less than a week prior to Trump's inauguration, the Times noted.

Smith believed someone at her school had given her information to the site's owners, even though she hadn't competed for Middlebury in three years, per the Times. In the previous season, she had practiced but did not formally return to the team, her coach told the paper. As Middlebury's top diver in her freshman year, Smith had dealt with hostility, lack of safe access to restrooms and changing areas, and what she called pervasive "social critique" that drove her away from competitions.

"One of the concerns she shared with me was that, because of her identity as a trans person, people just didn't want her to exist," Smith's housemate Edy Cruz told the Times.

[Charlotte_Ringwood]

I can't begin to express my deep hatred for humanity and in particular Trump. Society has had so many chances to learn compassion yet fails every time. This is just too sad.

[Dances With Trees]

Heartbreaking. And I certainly understand your reaction, Charlotte. I learned long ago that hate can fill the heart just as full as love does. But I prefer feeling love. And I love all of you.