The Department of Education announced Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports and enter female-only facilities.
The Office for Civil Rights ordered the University of Pennsylvania to “resolve the Title IX violations” within 10 days or face a potential referral to the Department of Justice, according to the Education Department’s press release. The Ivy League school must issue a university-wide statement affirming its compliance with Title IX, restore all “misappropriated” awards and records to female swimmers, and send an apology letter to each affected female athlete.
“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,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in the press release.
The noncompliance finding comes weeks after the Trump administration revoked $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and warned of additional cuts over the school’s inclusion of biological men in women’s sports. The Education Department first launched its investigation into the Ivy League school on February 6, a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological male athletes from competing in women’s sports.
“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,” Trainor added.
The university faced backlash in 2022 when it allowed swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological man, to compete on the women’s team and use women’s locker rooms. Thomas went on to win the NCAA championship in the women’s 500-yard freestyle and tie for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle, alongside Gaines, then a swimmer for the University of Kentucky.
More than a dozen female athletes, including Gaines, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in 2024, arguing that the inclusion of biological men in women’s sports violates Title IX.
Three Penn swimmers who competed against Thomas also sued the university. One of the plaintiffs, Margot Kaczorowski, said she was “thrilled to see that there are finally people in positions of power willing to support and protect women.”
Trump in the February 5 executive order condemned transgender participation in women’s sports.
“In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports,” the order reads. “This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
