The University of Pennsylvania has reached an agreement with the Trump administration To ban transgender athletes compete in women’s sports. The agreement, which includes erasing the successes of swimmer Lia Thomas, will allow school to access $ 175 million in funds that had frozen during the dispute.
Thomas’ successes were erased under the treatment that prohibits trans athletes in female sports
The Department of Education announced that the University of Pennsylvania had reached a volunteer agreement With the Government to resolve the dispute on transgender athletes, which largely revolved around swimming. By virtue of the agreement, Penn will erase the records and successes achieved by Thomas during his time competing for the school, including records at free events of 100 meters, 200 meters and 500 meters. Thomas ‘records and victories will be awarded to female non -transgender athletes who competed in Thomas’ events.
Beyond the impact In Thomas, who last competed in Penn in 2022, the agreement will ban other transgender athletes who compete in women’s sports for the school. This change in politics follows the additional restrictions that the NCAA of the NCAA, after the pressure of the Trump administration, which had accused the university sports of violating the title IX allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sporting events. The President of Upenn, J. Larry Jameson, stated in a statement that “Penn has always continued and continues to follow – Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA on transgender athletes”. After making this agreement, Upenn has regained access to $ 175 million in federal funds that the administration stopped in early 2025, according to a statement from the White House on Tuesday.
GOP Focus on trans exclusion under Trump
The Republican Party and the Trump administration have highlighted problems related to transgender individuals in spaces such as sports and military, usually seeking to limit or prohibit participation. In its current term, Trump issued Executive orders The prohibition of transgender athletes competes in women and girls sports, banning federal funding for health care related to the transition for minors and limiting federal recognition to biological sex instead of gender. Trump also banned transgender people from serving in the United States militaryarguing that their care costs were too expensive.
With the trans problems of trans rights that were polarized through the party lines, the reaction to the Upenn Agreement was mixed. The university athlete turned the Republican commentator Riley Gaines, who has pressed to ban trans athletes from female sports after deceiving Thomas in a competition, held the agreement.
Others requested the Trump administration to guide trans people for political reasons and condemned Penn’s leadership to renounce pressure. “Upenn was afraid to lose funding and they have decided to humiliate Lia that Thomas is a price worth paying for saving,” tweeted the writer Charlotte Clymer.
Tuesday’s agreement with the University of Pennsylvania is the result of another Trump administration effort to limit the participation of transgender people in various stages. In doing so, Trump and the University seem to have launched the high-level case of Lia Thomas and restricted the future sports careers from other trans athletes. With both conservative and progressive LGBTQ+ rights focused as a priority, it is unlikely to be the end of the political debate on the rights of transgender people in sports or other aspects of public life.
