Dept. of Ed. Finds U. Penn Violated Title IX By Permitting Men In Women’s Sports and Locker Rooms
“the University’s policies and practices violated Title IX by denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
Following an investigation, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its finding that the University of Pennsylvania has violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. According to a Monday news release from OCR, UPenn President J. Larry Jameson was advised that “the University’s policies and practices violated Title IX by denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
Among the OCR’s demands is that the university rescind awards from biological male athletes and restore them to the female athletes who should have rightfully received them.
This represents a major victory for female athletes everywhere, especially for former competitive swimmers Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, who played a key role in bringing national attention to the issue.
— Why so serious? (@DeltaXR9) April 28, 2025
William Thomas, whose performance as a male swimmer had been unremarkable, found new success competing against women. After transitioning, Thomas—now Lia Thomas—began setting records.
The woke crowd celebrated when Thomas became the first transgender “woman” to win a national championship during the 2021–22 season. But they conveniently forgot that swimming is a zero-sum sport where every victory for Thomas meant a stolen opportunity from a biological woman who had dedicated years to reach the top.
At any rate, OCR has presented UPenn with a proposed Resolution Agreement to address the violations outlined in its noncompliance findings. UPenn now has 10 days to voluntarily comply or face potential referral to the Department of Justice for enforcement action.
“Little girls who look up to Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan can find hope in today’s action – the Trump Administration will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
He continued, “UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an extremist political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn’s federal funding at risk.”
The proposed Resolution Agreement requires UPenn to implement the following measures:
(i) Issue a statement to the University community stating that the University will comply with Title IX in all of its athletic programs;
(ii) Restore to all female athletes all individual athletic records, titles, honors, awards or similar recognition for Division I swimming competitions misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories; and
(iii) Send a letter to each female athlete whose individual recognition is restored expressing an apology on behalf of the University for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.
BREAKING: The Dept of Ed’s Office for Civil Rights has found that Penn violated Title IX by allowing males to compete in women’s sports.
The proposed resolution includes restoring records and awards “misappropriated” by male athletes and apologizing to affected female athletes. pic.twitter.com/uv2qagt9KX
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 28, 2025
The blatant unfairness of biological males competing against females in sports is the most egregious part of the issue. However, other aspects are nearly as disturbing. Many young women on the swim team were deeply uncomfortable about being forced to share a locker room with Thomas.
In a 2023 interview with Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, Paula Scanlan described the experience:
I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re changing in the same locker room as a male.’ And we never talked about this. And previously, someone had said that Lia would be changing [in] an alternative locker room. We never really had a conversation about it, so I’m not sure why I would’ve assumed that would’ve been the case. But I think I did hold that hope for that. And obviously, that was not the reality. Lia had a locker in there just like everybody else.
Scanlan told Roberts about a training trip the team took in December 2021, during which they shared a locker room with young children who regularly swam at the facility — some as young as four or five, she said.
One of her teammates confided in Scanlan that “she knew in her heart it was wrong.”
And she told me that the visual of seeing Lia changing next to a four and five-year-old girls … was the turning point for her. She said, ‘This is not acceptable and I don’t know what to do.’ And she felt hopeless. I felt hopeless. We all did. And that to me is so scary. Those kids’ parents probably didn’t even know that we were training there. They had no idea.
The entire notion of biological males competing against females is a farce. I find it unfathomable that anyone could defend it — let alone advocate for it.
The OCR’s actions mark a return to sanity. Now we wait to see whether UPenn will comply with these demands or choose to fight them.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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It shouldn’t take a government regulatory body to declare that the institutions involved in the “trans” scam utterly betrayed the women they were supposed to promote and protect. This simply underscores the total lack of decency of the people running these institutions—from the NCAA all the way down to school administrators and coaches—betrayers all!
Wokism/Leftist is a mental disorder.
Lawsuit over this in 3 … 2 … 1 …
I keep waiting for Mr. Thomas to “de-transition’ — now that his swimming career is over, he’s going to re-center his identity to what it’s always been. There’s no real point in pretending to be a woman any more, and (I suspect) he’s never been serious about this. The very fact that he had the male block and tackle while swimming and changing in the locker rooms makes clear that this has all been an act for him.
He could have a bright future doing Bud Light commercials.
Or as a spokesperson for Swanson Hungry-Tran Dinners.
Tofu Lasagna, with sides of mushroom risotto, avocado toast, and a dessert crepe.
Someone dug up old instagram posts by Thomas where there seemed to be an admission that he was mainly motivated by autogynephilia, not a true belief that he was a woman.
Did he have “bottom surgery”? That would mean he really believed what he was saying. Doesn’t mean he’s right, just that he’s truly deluded.
If he didn’t, he’s a total fraud.
the ww2 nazis only “confessed” b/c they were out of ammo
these modern day nazis aka dnc>>universities block jewish students from going to classes while pushing males into womens locker rooms
times up
This is not EXACTLY the place for this comment, but it’s close enough that I will go ahead. Apologies for the tangent.
I think that American culture may finally be recovering from the consequences of World War Two. Now, I don’t mean economic consequences but cultural. Yes, I am blaming Hitler for our current societal woes, albeit indirectly, and you can add the Japanese as fuel for the fire.
Here is my premise: The cult solidarity and loyalty to the leaders of German and Japan (and yes, we can toss a little Stalin into the brew) frightened the living HELL out of American cultural and educational leaders. The message taught to all the Boomers (myself included) was:
Question authority! Be independent! Value the rights of the individual above all! All organizations are bad and the more organized, the worse it is!
We sucked it up just as well as the Germans took to Nazism, and the Japanese absorbed loyalty to the Emperor. It because our truth.
Now, 75 years later, we are dealing with the consequences of rebelling against the structures of society and -worst in my opinion- making the rights of the individual trump those of the rights of the group.
So we end up with a culture where the rights of a man who pretends to be a woman trump those of woman as a group. The rights protecting thieves are stronger than those of the business community. The “rights” of the individual to government assistance cater to illegal immigrants even though it is a detriment to citizens competing for that assistance and a burden to the rest of society whose taxes support them. The right to live independently on the streets is encouraged and financially supported even though the resultant homeless communities destroy neighborhoods. The same problems result from the passive approach to illegal drug use -crime and homelessness and the resultant destruction of urban communities.
All sacrificed on the altar of individual privilege over societal good.
Now, here’s the problem: I, as a Boomer, am too steeped in the culture I in which I was raised. I can articulate the problems and SEE THEM IN MY COMMUNITY.
However, I do not have the courage to propose curtailing individual rights even when they obviously are damaging the society as a whole. Will the next generation be able to put the mentally ill back into hospitals? Will they be willing to face up to the Black crime problem and act to bring it under control? I don’t know. The concern about the necessarily totalitarian government is too frightening to me for me to see the required actions as viable. I can only sit and watch the barbarians sack and burn ‘the city on the hill.”
However, I did not think that the illegal immigration crisis would ever be faced and fought. Perhaps a younger braver generation will face up to what needs to be done. .
I think you’re correct about WWII worries being the cause. I suggest you read “Return of the Strong Gods” by R.R. Reno. It explains the Postwar Consensus and Karl Popper’s and George Soros’ “Open Society”. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
At least consider reading the blurb here:
https://www.amazon.com/Return-Strong-Gods-Nationalism-Populism-ebook/dp/B07PY4TJ9X/
I’m also a ” Boomer, ” and I was not brought up that way at all. Nor were most of the people I grew up with. I grew up in rural America, but also witnessed the protests and riots of the ’60s and ’70s occurring on campuses and in urban areas, thanks to the magic of a small black and white TV. I’m going to guess you were one of those who were on the campuses protesting, while those of us in other areas of the country thought you were selfish drug drug-using hippies.
Wow, under a GOP president, Title IX is enforced as it should have been, from Day One, with respect to obnoxiously and violently misogynistic male trannies who, for purposes of rank self-aggrandizement, perversion and bullying, invade women’s and girls’ sports and private spaces.
Common sense prevails, but, it should not have taken a presidential election to produce this laudable result. The vile, stupid and evil Dhimmi-crats’ cultural and moral rot propagated throughout America’s institutions is pervasive.
So what are the penalties going to be? Sanctions? Loss of scholarships? Fines? Jail time? Anything? Bueller?
A recent NCXX track and field event had a male on a female team. A shot put athlete picked up the shot, set up for a throw, then turned around and walked to the edge of the circle and dropped the shot outside of it and walked away.. It didn’t get the hype the fencing athlete received but she did show her disgust with the situation.
I heard of exactly this happening for the same reason several years ago, when all this was much newer.
So Penn doesn’t know a man from a woman. If it’s good enough for a SCOTUS justice I guess it’s good enough for the Ivy League.
One critical change now is that it is finally safer for individuals to call out the crazies in charge. Once the fear of retaliation is reduced the saner minds will speak up even in these fortresses of fanaticism, and we are going to hear choruses of cries that the Emperor has no clothes. Of course they will fight back, but extremism is by definition a minority position except in enclaves where they have succeeded in driving out dissent. Once that suppression is removed, reform may happen far quicker than we thought possible not too long ago.
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