UPenn Bars Transgender Athletes in Title IX Deal With Education Department

17 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Published Jul 1, 2025, 08:41 PM

The University of Pennsylvania has reached a voluntary settlement with the U.S. Department of Education that ends a civil-rights investigation into the school’s handling of transgender participation in women’s sports, the agency announced on 1 July.

Under the agreement, Penn will prohibit transgender women from competing on its women’s athletic teams, adopt “biology-based” definitions of sex in athletics, and send personalized apology letters to swimmers who lost records or titles to Lia Thomas during the 2021-22 season. The university must also restore those records and publicly affirm its compliance with the department’s interpretation of Title IX.

The Education Department opened the probe in February and in April found the Ivy League school had violated Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination. The deal averts potential Justice Department action or the loss of federal funding; Penn received about $1 billion in federal support last year, and the White House had already paused $175 million pending the outcome.

Lia Thomas in 2022 became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship, intensifying a national debate over the inclusion of transgender competitors. The Penn accord is the first of its kind involving an Ivy League institution and underscores the Trump administration’s broader effort to restrict transgender participation in female sports categories nationwide.

More breaking stories on DeepNewz — updated live.

#University of Pennsylvania #Penn #Lia Thomas #Title IX #Education Department #Ivy League #Justice Department #White House #Trump

Financial Analysis

Associated Financial Markets

More financial news and market updates→

Related Prediction Markets

US kicks trans members out of military before August?

•

Sources

apnews.com outkick.com inquirer.com thefp.com

aka

@akafaceUS

🚨 BREAKING: UPenn has caved to President Trump and will now be banning men from women’s sports.

Gerry Callahan

@GerryCallahan

Incredible news. This is what winning the culture war looks like. Four years ago you couldn’t call Thomas a man. Now you call him what he is - a cheating, mentally unstable man who got off on bullying girls.

Mario Nawfal

@MarioNawfal

🚨🇺🇸 BREAKING: UPENN FORCED TO APOLOGIZE OVER LIA THOMAS - WOMEN GET THEIR RECORDS BACK UPenn just agreed to roll back the clock and give back swimming records and titles to female athletes that were claimed when Lia Thomas, a male-born trans swimmer, competed in the women’s