HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Trump administration announced Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated federal laws ensuring equal athletic opportunities for women by allowing a transgender athlete to compete on the women’s swim team and access women’s facilities.
Although the statement did not name Lia Thomas, it stems from a U.S. Department of Education civil rights investigation initiated in February. Thomas, a transgender swimmer who last competed for Penn in 2022, became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title and has since drawn national attention.
The department concluded that Penn breached Title IX — which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education — by “denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The University of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to the Trump administration’s statement on Monday. However, the university has previously said it followed all NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student-athlete participation, both during Lia Thomas’s time on the swim team and currently.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Penn has 10 days to voluntarily resolve the alleged Title IX violations or face legal action. The department is demanding that the university issue a statement committing to Title IX compliance, revoke any Division I awards or records held by Thomas, and deliver formal apologies to female swimmers whose recognition was affected, acknowledging that their experiences were compromised by sex-based discrimination.
In March, the administration suspended about $175 million in federal funding to Penn, citing the university’s decision to allow Thomas to compete. That funding came from agencies including the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
At the time Thomas competed in 2022, NCAA policy allowed transgender women to participate in women’s swimming if they had completed one year of hormone therapy, in accordance with guidance from national and international sports bodies.
However, the NCAA reversed its sport-by-sport eligibility approach on February 6, the day after Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The NCAA now restricts women’s sports participation to those assigned female at birth.
The Department of Education has also launched Title IX investigations into several other institutions, including San Jose State University, Denver Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, the Oregon School Activities Association, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. Additionally, the department has filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine, seeking to compel a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.
