On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cited Penn’s compliance with the federal government over Title IX as a model for how the White House plans to address transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports.
McMahon delivered her remarks on the steps of the Supreme Court as justices heard arguments in two cases regarding transgender athletes, Little v. Hecox and State of West Virginia v. B.P.J. According to McMahon, Penn's July 2025 settlement with the Department of Education “set the tone for all other educational institutions."
“UPenn was at the epicenter of this debate," McMahon said on Jan. 13. “Our agreement with the university led to the restoration of female athletes’ rightful titles, the elimination of policies that allowed students to compete on teams based on their ‘gender identity’ rather than sex, and the issuance of an apology to female athletes whose educational experience was marred by sex-discrimination."
McMahon called for the restoration of the “biological definitions” of gender to and argued that female athletes shouldn’t have to engage in “unfair competition,” using Penn as an example of what the Trump administration seeks to achieve.
As part of the University's resolution with the Education Department, Penn Athletics agreed to “adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
McMahon also referred to 2022 Engineering graduate Paula Scanlan, who was Thomas’ teammate, adding that she was “forced to share locker rooms and compete against a much larger man who had previously competed (without much success) on the men’s team.”
The Department of Education first opened a Title IX investigation into Penn on February 2025 after the University allowed 2022 College graduate and transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete on the women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021-22 season.
In March, the Trump administration paused $175 million in federal funding to Penn after flagging the University’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.”
Penn and the federal government reached a settlement in July after two months of negotiations. The agreement mandated that Penn release a statement reiterating compliance with Title IX, restore accolades “misappropriated” by transgender athletes to female athletes, and send individual apology letters to affected athletes. The agreement also restored the $175 million in funding that was previously paused.
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