The Trump administration has accused the University of Pennsylvania of violating federal civil rights law by allowing a transgender athlete to compete on the women's swim team and use women's facilities.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the university violated Title IX by "permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities," therefore denying female athletes equal opportunities to succeed.
Title IX, enacted in 1972, is a law that prohibits schools and colleges that receive federal funding from treating people unfairly based on their sex.
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The Trump administration statement did not specifically name former UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, who became a prominent symbol of transgender athletics after winning the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. It did, however, reference former collegiate swimmers Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, who competed against and alongside Thomas.
"Little girls who look up to Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan can find hope in today’s action – the Trump Administration will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories," said Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. "UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an extremist political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn’s federal funding at risk."
The Trump administration gave UPenn 10 days to meet a list of demands, which include:
- Issue a formal statement declaring the university will comply with Title IX "in all of its athletic programs;"
- Restore the athletic records and accolades of all female athletes for swimming competitions that were "misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories; and"
- Send an apology letter to every "female athlete whose individual recognition is restored" after having their athletics experience "marred by sex discrimination."
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In the early days of his second administration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports. The order allows federal agencies to withhold funds from schools that don't adhere to the administration's interpretation of Title IX.
Last month, the Trump administration suspended approximately $175 million in federal grants to Penn following an investigation into a transgender swimmer who competed for the school in 2022. A Penn official told The Associated Press they weren't immediately aware of the details of the funding suspension.
"We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions," said school spokesman Ron Ozio.
