Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas Stripped Of University Records And Titles
Image: PopCrave/X
In a deal with the Trump administration, the University of Pennsylvania has moved to ban trans women from women’s athletic competitions, and agreed to strip former collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas of her athletic records.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the university said, “all practices, policies, and procedures adopted and implemented by the university with respect to women’s athletics will comply with Executive Order 14168” from now on.
The Executive Order specified, named “No Men in Women’s Sports“, was passed on February 5 and restricts transgender Americans from participating in sport in a direct effort to target trans women and girls.
“In providing to female student-athletes intimate facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms in connection with Penn Athletics, such facilities shall be strictly separated on the basis of sex and comparably provided to each sex,” the statement continued.
Statements from the university and the Department of Education indicate Penn will be adopting the Trump administration’s definition of “biological sex“- that is, male or female based on “biological capacity to produce” gametes, assigned at birth, and unchanging.
Penn will also reclassify all “Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions”, which will erase the times and records set by Thomas. As of Tuesday evening, student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian reported Thomas’ times no longer appear on the university swimming and diving records list.
The university will also be sending formal letters of apology to the athletes who lost to Thomas.
Move comes after university faced federal funding freeze
The university chose to adopt the policies following a DOE “investigation” into the institution’s Title IX compliance earlier in the year, which resulted in the freezing of $175 million of federal funding.
“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 in the DOE statement.
“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.”
Research has shown that trans women do not have a significant advantage over cis women athletes, and might even be at a disadvantage, depending on the sport.
A statement from Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center criticised the university for its “utter failure” to protect trans students.
“The Trump administration’s attacks on civil rights protections, including Title IX, and obsession with undermining bodily autonomy is the real harm to women and girls, unlike transgender athletes who want to compete in sports alongside their peers and pose no threat to women’s sports, contrary to Trump’s lies. In fact, their inclusion benefits all women and girls,” Patel wrote.
“We will continue to support Lia Thomas and her peers and their right to compete.”
