The Trump administration announced Monday that it has determined the University of Pennsylvania violated federal civil rights laws by allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
The Ivy League school flouted Title IX rules by “denying women equal opportunities” and allowing transgender athletes to “occupy women-only intimate facilities,” the administration said – giving UPenn 10 days to “voluntarily resolve these violations or risk a referral to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement proceedings.”
“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,” Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The Education Department’s proposed resolution agreement requires UPenn to release a statement vowing to comply with Title IX in all of its athletic programs; restore athletic records, titles and awards that have been “misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories”; and apologize to the female athletes whose individual recognitions are to be restored.
UPenn did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
In March, the Trump administration froze $175 million in taxpayer funding to UPenn after the school defied President Trump’s executive order banning transgender women athletes of all ages from competing on girls and women’s sports teams.
A UPenn spokesperson told The Post at the time that the school was “in full compliance” with “NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams.”
The elite school became the center of the controversy over transgender athlete participation after one of its male swimmers transitioned and joined the women’s team before going on to win an NCAA Division I title.
Trans swimmer Lia Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle after transitioning before the 2022 season.
Thomas also went on to tie for fifth place against University of Kentucky female swimmer Riley Gaines, who has since become an outspoken opponent of trans athlete inclusion in women’s sports, and was referenced in Trainor’s statement Monday.
Former UPenn female swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist filed a federal lawsuit against their alma mater earlier this year over being forced to compete with Thomas.
Earlier this month, the DOJ sued Maine’s Department of Education over claims that the state violated Title IX by “failing to protect women in women’s sports.”
“The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time. “This is about sports, this is also about these young women’s personal safety.”
