|
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb.5 that
was intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls
and women’s sports. The next day, the Education Department
announced an investigation into Penn's swimming program.
But the Ivy League school's federal money was suspended in a
separate review of discretionary federal money going to
universities, the White House said. The money that was paused
came from the Defense Department and the Department of Health
and Human Services.
A Penn spokesperson said the school had not received any
notification or details of the action.
“It is important to note, however, that Penn has always followed
NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on
athletic teams,” spokesperson Ron Ozio said. “We have been in
the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the
regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and
Ivy League peer institutions.”
The investigation opened by the Education Department's Office
for Civil Rights at Penn focuses on Lia Thomas, who swam on the
school’s women’s team and was the first openly transgender
athlete to win a Division I title in 2022. Thomas graduated from
Penn the same year.
At the time, the NCAA used a sport-by-sport approach to allowing
transgender athletes to participate, deferring to an individual
sport's national governing organization, international
federation or prior established International Olympic Committee
criteria. Thomas competed under those guidelines, which allowed
female transgender swimmers who had completed one year of
hormone replacement therapy to compete.
Trump's executive order on transgender athletes allows federal
agencies to withhold funding if an entity does not follow the
administration's interpretation of Title IX, which outlaws
sex-based discrimination in schools and colleges. The order
interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
The NCAA changed its policy the day after the order was signed,
ending its sport-by-sport practice in favor of a blanket policy
that only allows athletes assigned female at birth to
participate in women's sports.
The Education Department also opened reviews of San Jose State
University volleyball and the Massachusetts Interscholastic
Athletic Association.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights
reserved |
|
