UPenn to ban transgender athletes, feds say, ending civil rights case focused on swimmer Lia Thomas

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case that found the school violated the rights of female athletes.

The U.S. Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.

It’s part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas, the Education Department said. Penn also agreed to send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Thomas would be stripped of her awards and honors at Penn.

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

US judge says HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted

Fireworks will light up this Fourth of July. Next year could be different if tariff talks fizzle

Signs posted at National Park Service sites seen as threats to ‘whitewash’ dark side of history

Fed vs. Trump on tariffs impact will soon be put to test

The university must also announce that it “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” and it must adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, the department said.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls.

“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,” McMahon said in a statement.

The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the school’s federal funding.

In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”

The most obvious target at the college level was in women’s swimming, where Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.

The NCAA has updated its record books when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, but the organization, like the NFSHSA, has not responded to the federal government’s request. Determining which events had a transgender athlete participating years later would be challenging.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.