Upenn Will Bar Transgender Athletes from Women’s Sports Teams

The Washington Post

16:50 JST, July 2, 2025

The University of Pennsylvania will no longer allow transgender women to compete on its women’s sports team under an agreement reached with the federal government, the Education Department said Tuesday.

The voluntary deal comes about two months after the department found that Penn had violated Title IX, the federal statute prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, when it allowed transgender athletes to compete on its women’s sports team and use associated facilities.

The government’s investigation centered on Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete who competed on the school’s women’s swim team during the 2021-22 season. She became the first known transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I title and graduated in 2022.

The NCAA in February revised its policy for transgender athletes, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth. As of March, Penn no longer had any transgender athletes competing on women’s teams.

The agreement between Penn and the Education Department requires the school to restore to female athletes all individual Division I swimming records or titles that had been awarded to a transgender swimmer. On Tuesday, Penn updated its list of all-time school records for women’s swimming, which changed the record-holder for three events – the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle. The list denotes that “competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time,” Thomas had set program records in those events during the season she swam.

The university also has to send an apology letter to all impacted swimmers and issue a public statement about its new policy. Penn released the statement Tuesday.

The Trump administration has been seeking to combat aspects of higher education it finds objectionable, particularly around campus culture and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Trump has also taken a strong stance on sex and gender – signing an executive order saying the United States would “recognize two sexes, male and female,” and another stipulating that the government would rescind funding for institutions that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.

In a message to the campus community Tuesday, Penn President J. Larry Jameson said he was “pleased” to have made the deal with federal officials, adding that if the investigation had gone unresolved, it “could have had significant and lasting implications.” He added that when Penn allowed Thomas to compete on its women’s swim team, the university was complying with Title IX and NCAA rules “as then interpreted.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the agreement as “a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation.”

“The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls,” McMahon said in a statement Tuesday.

Thomas’s participation on the women’s team fueled intense debates over whether she and other transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in sports that align with their gender identity, rather than their sex assigned as birth. Opponents argued that transgender athletes have a biological advantage, making sports unfair for other competitors.

Thomas was a member of the men’s swimming team at Penn for three years before joining the women’s team. At the time, the NCAA allowed transgender women to compete in women’s events after they had completed a full year of testosterone suppression treatment. Thomas had completed more than two years of the treatment by then.

The controversy over Thomas inspired lawsuits from current and former athletes who swam with or competed against her – including one filed this year by three of her former teammates.

On the same day the NCAA revised its policy for transgender athletes, the Education Department announced Title IX investigations into Penn, San José State University and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association – all for allegedly having transgender members on their women’s sports teams.

Weeks later, the Trump administration froze $175 million in federal funding for Penn over its previous transgender athlete policies. The White House touted the decision as “promises kept” but did not give a legal basis for the pause, or criteria for reinstating it.

The Education Department had yet to announce the results of its Title IX investigation – a step that would normally come before any punitive actions. A spokesperson for the White House told The Washington Post at the time that the freeze was not the result of that investigation.

The White House on Thursday did not answer a question about whether the funding was reinstated or if Penn had to meet any specific requirements before it could be resumed.