LGBTQ, legal groups slam UPenn for ‘caving’ to Trump’s trans athlete ban

The University of Pennsylvania’s decision to ban transgender female athletes from competing in women’s sports to resolve a civil rights complaint by the Department of Education is being slammed by LGBTQ activists and legal experts as unconstitutional.

The Trump administration announced this week that the Ivy League school has agreed to follow the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

The administration had previously suspended $175 million in federal contracts awarded to Penn, citing the participation of openly transgender athlete Lia Thomas on the women’s swimming team during the 2021-2022 season.

“It’s embarrassing, dangerous and ill-advised. I think they made a very big mistake that they will come to regret,” Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, told ABC News. “It’s bizarre behavior, and it just seems humiliating that such a powerful, respected university is just caving in to these cruel and gratuitously hurtful positions.”

Minter added, “I think extortion is a very good metaphor for what’s going on here. It is the federal government threatening to withhold funding if the university doesn’t agree to take a position.”

‘Legally it makes no sense’

As part of the agreement, Penn will adhere to two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that the White House says defend women from “gender ideology extremism.”

The university is also required to strip Thomas of her swimming awards, including her win in the 500 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships, and send a letter of apology to female swimmers who competed against Thomas.

The school also agreed to keep student-athlete bathrooms and locker room access strictly separate on the basis of sex.

“Legally, it makes no sense,” Minter said. “I mean, the position of the Trump administration is that Penn somehow did something wrong by following the law that was recognized to be the law by federal courts and by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice at the relevant time, and they were complying with NCAA policy. So, to punish them after the fact because the administration now has taken a different position on what they think the law should be, is pretty outlandish.”

When asked for comment, the university directed ABC News to a letter to the school community by University of Pennsylvania President Dr. J. Larry Jameson.

In the letter, Jameson said the university’s “commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering.”

The letter added: “At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports.”

White House: ‘Common-sense’ victory

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded Penn’s decision as a “common-sense” victory for women and girls.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes,” McMahon said in a statement.

During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools” and “keep men out of women’s sports.”

“This Administration does not just pay lip service to women’s equality: it vigorously insists on that equality being upheld,” Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships, said in a statement about the UPenn decision.

Gaines said she hoped Penn’s decision would prompt other educational institutions to refrain from violating women’s civil rights, and “renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve.”

In a 2022 interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Thomas, who originally competed on Penn’s men’s swim team, denied she had an unfair advantage over swimmers who were born female.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do and the biggest change for me is that I’m happy, and sophomore year, where I had my best times competing with the men, I was miserable,” Thomas told GMA. “So, having that be lifted is incredibly relieving and allows me to put my all into training, into racing. Trans people don’t transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves.”

Minter said it was “shocking” that Penn would agree retroactively to punishment for something lawful at the time.

“In my view, it’s still lawful. The only thing that has changed is the administration has taken a different view,” Minter said. “This is just classic intimidation, bullying and harassment. It’s really sad to see a university like Penn just knuckle under, I’m sure in hopes that they will not be further targeted if they do so. It’s a shameful day for the university, for our country.”

Minter said he believes Penn’s agreement is opening the university up to “all kinds of liability” moving forward.

“They have now stated publicly that they were violating the law, and so what’s to stop all kinds of other third parties from coming back and suing them now and saying, ‘Well, you’ve admitted that what you were doing is unlawful.’ I mean, it wasn’t, but they’ve now said it was and so they’re creating liability for themselves,” Minter said.

Supreme Court to hear trans athlete case

Naiymah Sanchez, senior organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told ABC News that she fears other universities that are subject to the Department of Education’s civil rights investigation will follow in Penn’s footsteps.

“The anti-trans movement is allowing the building of power amongst people who are ignorant because they don’t know and people who feel like if only we can remove these folks, we will have a better life,” said Sanchez. “There’s nothing that the University of Pennsylvania did that was unlawful. It followed standard guidelines.”

State bans on transgender students participating in girls’ and women’s sports have become flashpoints across the country.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear appeals from two states seeking to uphold such laws.

The cases from West Virginia and Idaho — which will be scheduled for argument next term in the fall — will decide whether the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act prohibit the bans based on an athlete’s sex assigned at birth.

Lower courts in those cases sided with the student athletes in finding the state laws violated either the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause or Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.

The decision to hear the cases follows a decision by the court’s conservative majority last month upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Chief Justice John Roberts said the laws did not violate the 14th Amendment or discriminate on the basis of sex, even though the same medical treatments are widely available to cisgender minors.

Sanchez noted that in 2024, then-NCAA President Charlie Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that out of more than 500,000 student athletes competing at the college level, fewer than 10 were transgender.

“As a trans person, we try not to get too emotionally attached to the issues that are happening, even if we’re not the ones who are being denied the right,” Sanchez said. “But the reality is that a new administration came in and they set their targets to a certain thing. They’re going after the easiest fruit on the tree. But it’s not just about picking the easiest fruit on the tree, it’s about uprooting the entire tree.”