Despite talking a big game in recent years, universities that once championed biological men playing in women’s sports are now backing down amid the Trump administration’s threats to defund them.
During the previous administration and even before, universities were allowing men to participate in women’s sports in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In a move that was unfair to women and often dangerous to their physical safety, men who identified as women unabashedly played in their collegiate sports and won their awards.
As the outcry from Americans grew louder, universities doubled down and defended their unethical practices, but that has now changed in the past few months. Universities that once defended men in women’s sports are backtracking due to the administration’s threats.
In one of the most notable examples recently, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) agreed to the Department of Education’s demands to prohibit biological males from playing in women’s sports. This is after the university allowed transgender athlete Lia Thomas to participate in the women’s swimming team. UPenn’s actions resulted in Thomas sharing locker rooms and stripping naked with biological women as well as winning the NCAA championship for the 500-yard freestyle event in 2022.
Around that time as Thomas collected collegiate awards, UPenn released a statement defending the school’s actions. The school explained that Thomas “has met or exceeded all NCAA protocols over the past two years for a transgender female-student athlete” and “will continue to represent Penn women’s swimming team in competition this season.”
Now the university is singing a different tune.
UPenn’s agreement with the Education Department (ED) promises that the university will abide by Title IX going forward and will no longer allow men to play in women’s sports. As part of this agreement, UPenn must restore titles and records to women that were awarded to men, issue a statement promising to comply with Title IX, rescind guidance that violates Title IX, and issue an apology to female athletes who were impacted.
One organization that notably defended Lia Thomas was the Ivy League. This group serves as a collegiate athletic conference for eight Ivy League private institutions, including UPenn, Harvard University, and Columbia University.
In a statement published in 2022, the Ivy League claimed that Thomas and UPenn followed “all of the appropriate protocols in order to comply with the NCAA policy on transgender athlete participation.” The athletic conference then reaffirmed “its unwavering commitment to providing an inclusive environment for all student-athletes while condemning transphobia and discrimination in any form.”
When asked for comment if the conference is now prohibiting men in women’s sports after the UPenn agreement, Ivy League officials did not respond.
While the Ivy League still has a DEI statement published online, the conference’s members appear to be reversing course now.
After President Donald Trump signed his executive order to keep men out of women’s sports on Feb. 5, Harvard University quickly removed the school’s transgender policy allowing males in women’s athletics. The university previously promised in the policy to create “a space that is welcoming and inclusive to all identities; including but not limited to gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”
Columbia University did the same. The university had a policy stating that transgender athletes were allowed to play in women’s sports, but the policy was taken down after the executive order.
Harvard and Columbia did not respond when asked if they were also in the process of entering an agreement with ED similar to UPenn.
UPenn, Harvard, and Columbia had no problem allowing men to invade female spaces and compete against women when there were no consequences, despite how morally dubious and dangerous this was. In fact, they promoted it in an effort to show that they support equity and inclusion. However, as soon as Trump endangered their federal funding through his executive order, they did not hesitate to back down.
The president’s executive order banning men from women’s sports explains that institutions that refuse to comply will lose their federal funding. These universities that claimed to support transgender athletes because it was the so-called right thing to do simply could not back up their own words when forced to actually obey the law.
In 2024, UPenn received over $1 billion in federal funding while Harvard received nearly $687 million and Columbia received a staggering $1.3 billion. Their bottom line was more important than their perceived virtues.
Even the NCAA’s Board of Governors voted to update their policies in February to restrict women’s sports to athletes who were “assigned female at birth.” This is a huge victory for the Trump administration and female athletes as the NCAA administers collegiate athletics for over 1,000 colleges.
The fight for fair policies in women’s sports has been long and arduous, but common sense is finally prevailing. The seemingly impenetrable wall protecting woke academia has crumbled with America’s collegiate athletes benefiting as a result.
All it took was an administration willing to step up and hold universities accountable.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Defending Education.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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