BY: Ashley Blackwell
Published 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately, the erasure of LGBTQIA+ members in mainstream spaces is still on the rise. If you’ve been MIA, the government has requested that the University of Pennsylvania remove Lia Thomas’ records.
In an April press release, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reprimanded UPenn after ruling that the school supposedly violated equal-opportunity laws for women in athletics. The infringement (seemingly) occurred when the Ivy League allowed the trans swimmer to compete on its female swim team.
If you didn’t know, Thomas was the first openly transgender individual to score an NCAA Division I national championship in 2022 when she won the 500-yard freestyle event. The Texas native ignited nationwide debates regarding genderqueer people in sports, as her involvement unconventionally defied social (and identity) norms for many.
“Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its finding that the University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” the announcement, made on Apr. 28, declared on the government agency’s website. “OCR notified UPenn President J. Larry Jameson 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.”
Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, added: “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.” He furthered, “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.”
Although Thomas wasn’t (directly) named in the statement, per The Daily Pennsylvanian, this comes only months after the Trump Administration paused $175M in federal funding to the university in March. According to the publication, a White House official cited that the action ensued after UPenn “infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team.”
However, when addressing the alleged breach and media reports of the financial cut, UPenn’s Office of the President argued, “Penn has never had a transgender student-athlete policy of its own.”
The statement continued: “During the 2021-22 season, a student-athlete who had transitioned while on leave from Penn the previous year competed in women’s swimming, in full compliance with NCAA rules and Title IX policies in place at the time.”
Why the Trump Administration Really Wants Lia Thomas Records Removed
As you may (or may not) have known, on Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which banned transgender female athletes from participating in women’s/girls’ games. This was only a day after a ring of lawsuits came against UPenn for Thomas’ participation and a day before the U.S. Department of Education launched its investigation of the situation.
Section 1 of “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” titled “Policy and Purpose,” reads, “In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports. This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
Elsewhere in the passage, it states, “Moreover, under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX), educational institutions receiving Federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports. As some Federal courts have recognized, ‘ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.’
‘Preserving Fairness and Safety in Women’s Sports,’ outlined in section 4, said, “Many sports-specific governing bodies have no official position or requirements regarding trans-identifying athletes. Others allow men to compete in women’s categories if these men reduce the testosterone in their bodies below certain levels or provide documentation of ‘sincerely help’ gender identity. These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety.”
Because of the University of Pennsylvania’s violation, they’ve been asked to — (via the U.S. Department of Education):
- Issue a statement to the University community stating that the University will comply with Title IX in all of its athletic programs
- 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
- 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
What are your thoughts on this matter? Let us know in the comments below.
