UPenn bans transgender athletes from female sports and revokes some of Lia Thomas' records in Trump admin deal
In a statement Tuesday evening, the Department of Education announced it had reached a deal with the university to ban trans women from competing in women's sports and to "restore" trans women's swimming titles to their cisgender (or non-trans) competitors.
Penn confirmed it would fully comply with President Donald Trump's executive order on "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism", which demands that sports, changing rooms, and toilets be segregated by birth sex alone.
In exchange, the Department will drop its civil rights case alleging that Penn discriminated against cis women by allowing Thomas to compete following her transition.
Within hours of the announcement, Penn had removed Thomas from its online list of college records and replaced her with cis counterparts — albeit without erasing her name entirely.
Instead, there is now a footnote that reads: "Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season."
Thomas is yet to react publicly to Penn's decision. The Independent has reached out to a representative of Thomas' for comment.
Tuesday's deal only affects Penn's own records, not Thomas's victories in intercollegiate competitions — which Trump's administration is separately trying to revoke. It also lets stand her record in the 400 yard relay race, since that was achieved and shared with three other women.
"While Penn's policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules," college president J. Larry Jameson said.
"We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time."
Thomas made history in 2022 when she won first place in the NCAA's Division I 500 yard freestyle race, becoming the first openly trans athlete to ever achieve the top prize in college sports.
Analysis of college swimming stats by The Independent found that Thomas, who had been on hormone therapy for three years, swam about on par with other top female swimmers and did not appear to have any unfair advantage.
But Thomas became a figure of hate among anti-trans activists and a cause célèbre for Republicans, named on stage by Trump and featured in GOP election adverts about "men pretending to be women".
Her former competitor Riley Gaines, who tied with Thomas for fifth place in the NCAA 200-yard freestyle, has become a prominent conservative activist, while three former Penn athletes sued the college for discrimination.
In March the Trump administration suspended $175m in research funding for the university, publicly blaming its "policies forcing women to compete with men in sports".
"Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said on Tuesday.
"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."
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