A trans student-athlete at Middlebury College in Vermont has taken her own life.

The body of Lia Smith, 21, was discovered by Vermont State Police in a field near The Knoll, the college’s organic farm, on October 23. The following day, authorities confirmed Smith’s identity and death by suicide.

Related

Judge throws out most of Riley Gaines suit against trans athletes but lets one key claim proceed

The college senior had been reported missing five days earlier, and she was found after a large-scale search involving the FBI. 

Smith, Middlebury class of ’26, was a double computer science and statistics major from Woodside, California, and had previously competed on the school’s Women’s Swimming and Diving team. 

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Smith began diving for Middlebury as a freshman during the 2022–2023 season. She was one of her team’s top performers. In Smith’s rookie debut, she placed fifth overall off the 3-meter board. 

Smith took a break from diving the following year, later explaining the difficulties associated with competing as a trans student-athlete.

As well as the burden of quarterly hormone checks, Smith lamented the challenge of sharing locker room space with teammates.

She called it “really hard going in a locker room where you’re not welcome, and there’s really not a clear space that I should be going to.”

Smith made the comments at a protest forum in February following the president’s executive order calling for a ban on trans athletes in women’s sports.

“We’re not trying to get into women’s spaces to be perverts,” she said at the event. “We’re just being ourselves. We don’t mean any harm to anyone.”

For those still competing, and others facing government-sanctioned discrimination, Smith had words of support.

“Know that there are people in your community who are here for you and care about you,” she told students.

Like hundreds of other trans athletes, Smith was hounded on social media for competing in women’s sports. The aggrieved website and X account, “HeCheated,” tracked Smith’s diving history while deadnaming her and disparaging her motives and identity.

In February, the account announced with satisfaction that Middlebury had removed Smith’s diving team profile, following the NCAA’s ban on trans women athletes competing.

Middlebury College President Ian Baucom shared news of Smith’s death in an email to the college community on Saturday morning. 

“Over the past few days, I have learned what a remarkable person Lia was,” Baucom wrote. “She was a gift to us and we are so grateful that she was–and will always remain–a member of our Middlebury family.” 

“I have spoken with Lia’s family to express my heartbreak. As president, and far more as a fellow parent, I ache for them. This is a profound loss that nobody should have to endure.”

On a memorial website, Smith’s family asked for donations to the Prism Center for Queer and Trans Life at Middlebury in lieu of flowers. 

“Lia will be remembered for her deep sense of empathy, her clever puns, her keen mind, particularly with respect to analytical matters, her robust and infectious laugh, her love of poetry and music, which she performed both as an accomplished pianist and trombonist, and perhaps most importantly, her undaunted courage,” her family wrote.

Smith’s motives are not known, but trans journalist Erin Reed nonetheless slammed anti-trans political leaders, whose policies she said lead to deaths like Smith’s.

“These policies carry blood on their hands,” she wrote. “Transgender advocates have warned for years that the relentless criminalization and isolation of our community would lead to deaths. Lia deserved better—better than this government, better than these institutions. Every transgender suicide is not just a tragedy, its a murder; it’s the foreseeable consequence of policies designed to make us disappear.”

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.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.