The University of Pennsylvania has been found in violation of Title IX for allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in women’s events, leading to federal penalties and a national reckoning over gender policy in collegiate athletics.
At a Glance
- Education Department says Penn violated Title IX by letting Lia Thomas compete in women’s swimming
- School ordered to revoke Thomas’s 2022 NCAA title and restore honors to cisgender female athletes
- $175 million in federal funding suspended pending compliance
- Penn given 10 days to act before DOJ referral
- Executive Order 14201 mandates biological-sex-based eligibility in sports
Federal Crackdown on Transgender Athlete Participation
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has determined that the University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX by permitting Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to swim on its women’s team. Investigators concluded this “denied female athletes equal opportunities” and access to women-only competitions, according to Axios.
The ruling enforces President Trump’s Executive Order 14201, which redefined Title IX protections as applying only to individuals based on biological sex. As a result, the administration has suspended $175 million in federal funds to Penn and warned of a potential Department of Justice referral if the university fails to comply within 10 days.
Mandated Reversals and Institutional Response
As reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the university has been formally ordered to rescind Thomas’s 2022 NCAA title and return all affected records, trophies, and honors to the original female athletes. The Department of Education also demands formal apologies be issued to each athlete whose placements or recognitions were displaced.
Though the university has stated that it followed then-current NCAA and Ivy League policies, the Education Department asserts that these practices no longer align with updated federal law.
Watch Reuters’ report on the incident at Trump administration orders Penn to erase transgender swimmer’s records.
National Implications and Legal Escalations
The decision has national reach. According to Reuters, the DOJ is preparing a lawsuit against the state of Maine over its continued allowance of transgender-identifying males on girls’ teams, signaling a broader push to enforce biological-sex definitions of athletic eligibility.
Advocates like Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan—both former NCAA competitors—have praised the ruling. They argue that biological sex confers undeniable physical advantages and that ignoring this in sport undermines competitive fairness.
Executive Order 14201 and New Policy Norms
The crackdown stems from Trump’s Executive Order 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which prohibits male-born athletes from competing in female categories at federally funded institutions. The NCAA, under pressure from federal agencies, recently adopted interim guidance aligning with the order, reversing its 2022 policies that had supported gender identity as the basis for eligibility.
More background on the executive order can be found via the official summary on Wikipedia.
Broader Reactions and Institutional Reckoning
The University of Pennsylvania is not alone in facing scrutiny. Other schools with transgender athlete policies are now reviewing compliance protocols amid fears of losing federal support. Legal experts suggest this case sets a new standard, one that may require sweeping policy revisions across the NCAA and state athletic federations.
As noted by AP News, critics have accused the administration of weaponizing Title IX to reverse gains in LGBTQ inclusion, while supporters see it as a necessary correction to preserve sex-based equity.
With the 10-day enforcement clock ticking, the battle over what defines fairness in women’s sports is far from over.
