NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
First at Fox: The US Ministry of Education on Tuesday announced that the University of Pennsylvania has accepted a decision with President Donald Trump’s administration to keep biological male trans athletes out of women’s sports, in a statement delivered to Pakinomist Digital.
The department previously launched a study of UPENN on February 6 for violations of title IX, which took place in the swimming program. Trans athlete Lia Thomas competed for the women’s content of the 2021-22 season after he has previously competed for the Lord’s team.
“Today, the US Ministry of Education (Department) University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) announced a decision -making agreement to comply with Title IX for the Education Change in 1972 (Title IX),” the statement reads.
CLICK HERE for more sports cover at Foxnews.com
Riley Gaines, now a spokeswoman for Independent Women’s Forum, famously tied Lia Thomas to fifth place in the 200 Freestyle final at the NCAA swimming and diving championship. (Brett Davis-usa Today Sports)
According to the DOE’s notice, under Upenn’s new agreement, the following actions will be taken:
- Upenn will restore to female athletes all individual Upenn Division in swimming records, titles or similar accolades abused by male athletes who were allowed to compete in female categories;
- Upenn will make a public statement to the university community that it will comply with section IX and specify that UPENN will not allow men to compete in female athletic programs or occupy Penn Athletics female intimate facilities;
- The statement will specify that Upenn will adopt biology -based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ in accordance with Section IX and in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders “who defend women from gender ideology extremism” and “keep men out of women’s sports”;
- Upenn sends the statement in a prominent place on its main website and on each of its sites for Women’s Athletics;
- Upenn will cancel any guidance that violated title IX, removing or revising any internal and public -related statements or documents that are incompatible with title IX, and notifies all staff and women’s athletics of all such cancellations; and
- Upenn sends a personal apology letter to each affected female swimmer.
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon credited Trump for the decision.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, Upenn has agreed to apologize for both its violation of former IX and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes,” McMahon said in a statement.
“Today, a big victory for women and girls is not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but everywhere in our nation.
Former Upenn Women’s Swimmer Paula Scanlan, who was the first of Thomas’ teammates at the women’s content, who spoke against the school to let the situation play out, Pakinomist told Digital that she is “grateful.”
How transgenderism in sports changed the election in 2024 and ignited a national counterculture
“I am deeply grateful for the Trump administration to have stuck in protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful recognition,” Scanlan said.
“It is because of their strong leadership that my Alma Mater now knows that it has no choice but to begin the process of reforming its policy to maintain women’s rights. Today, a significant step towards repairing the past abuse female athletes and forged a future where sex discrimination no longer limits the girls’ potential.”
Scanlan is not the only one of Thomas’ former teammates who speak more.
Three other former Upenn swimmers filed a lawsuit against the university on February 5, the same day that Trump signed “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
The lawsuit tried to have Thomas’ accolades withdrawn and redistributed to the women’s swimmers who competed against the athlete, and it claims that university administrators suggested that any female swimmer be against Thomas competing with them, had a “psychological problem” and was referred to the school’s LGBTQ center.
Trump’s administration later froze $ 175 million in financing for the school on March 20. Then, on April 28, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights announced that its study concluded that Upenn violated the title IX in his handling of the Thomas situation.
The Thomas saga at the NCAA championship in 2022 is largely regarded as a cultural turning point in the national debate on transking athletes in women’s sports. Back then, the current prominent conservative activist Riley Gaines was just a dentist who had to settle for a tie with Thomas in one of the NCAA championship events.
Since then, Gaines has taken the lead on a whole political platform focusing on combating male inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports, stemming from her experience of competing against Thomas in 2022.
Gaines former Pakinomist Digital told me that she would send a “thank you” note to “people like” Thomas for bringing attention to the question back then when she believes it affected the 2024 election.
“I think we should send a taknote to people like Will Thomas, I really do, signed and sealed by me. I want to sign Taknote, I want to write it because I think he handed us the election,” Gaines said.
“There was a lot that was wrong with Joe Biden, his administration and the Democratic Party as a whole out of sporting things … But this was the perfect visual. It’s like South Park episode … It painted the image that many of us were concerned about for a while but made it a reality.”
ONE National Exit Poll Made by the affected women for America Legislative Action Committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s resistance to trans -bright boys and men playing girls and women’s sports and by transient boys and men using girls and women’s bathrooms” as important to them. In addition, 6% said it was the most important question of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
Pakinomist Digital reached out to Upenn and Thomas’ listed representative for comment.
