Lia Thomas Records Erased as Penn Bans Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports
Three years ago, Lia Thomas drew national and international headlines as the first transgender female swimmer to contend for and eventually win an NCAA title. Now, in response to a Title IX lawsuit, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to strip Thomas’ titles and records and ban any further transgender females from competing on women’s sports teams.
The U.S. Education Department announced Tuesday the terms to which Penn had agreed. The federal government determined the school had violated the rights of women and girls by allowing an athlete assigned male at birth to compete on a women’s team. If Penn had fought the ruling, the school could have lost significant federal funding.
As part of the deal to ensure the school retains its funding, Penn “will restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated.” Additionally, the university must issue a statement emphasizing its future compliance with Title IX and exclusion of transgender females from women’s teams.
This falls in line with guidance from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made a priority of prohibiting anyone assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports since returning to office in January.
Further requirements of Penn include:
- The statement will specify that UPenn will adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” and “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”;
- UPenn will post the statement in a prominent location on its main website and on each of its websites for women’s athletics;
- UPenn will rescind any guidance which violated Title IX, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all staff and women’s athletics of all such rescissions; and
- UPenn will send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.
“Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law.”
In the months before and after Thomas became a contender in the women’s category for the first time, sports organizations worked furiously to clarify and update their positions on transgender inclusion. The NCAA made various announcements during the latter half of the 2021-22 season, but Thomas was still allowed to compete up until the NCAA Championships in March 2022.
Following that meet, which concluded her college career, Thomas was effectively prohibited from further participation in the sport because of new legislation from USA Swimming and World Aquatics.
Read more from the Associated Press here. Read the full report from the Department of Education here.