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In announcing that it will freeze millions of dollars to a university that perverted and ignored its legal responsibilities to women and girls under Title IX, the Trump administration is sending a clear message to all schools: Protect the safety, privacy, dignity, and spaces of women and girls — or lose federal funding.
This week, the Trump administration announced that it is pausing $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) due to violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The violations occurred when the university allowed swimmer Will Thomas to switch from the men’s team to the women’s team, to officially adopt the name “Lia,” and to change and shower in the women’s locker room.
Penn has insisted that it was just following orders from the NCAA, but that’s not the picture painted by former Penn swimmers. Instead theirs is a story of intimidation, gaslighting, and being bullied into silence.
According to these women, Penn officials warned them Thomas’s inclusion on the women’s team was not up for debate and threatened them with consequences if they spoke out about their opposition. The school also reportedly suggested that any team members who were upset with being forced to share a locker room with Thomas who is 6’4’’ and had his male anatomy intact should seek psychiatric help or counseling.
Former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan has been especially outspoken about the intimidation tactics the university used to ensure compliance.
Scanlan said that the athletic department officials held a meeting with the female swimmers and told them, “Do not talk to the media or you will regret it.”
She said the university cautioned them that speaking out about Thomas would harm their future job prospects and that if they had an issue with Thomas swimming on the team then they were the “problem” and needed to be reeducated or have counseling.
Scanlan testified before Congress that she wrote an opinion piece in the university newspaper on the unfairness of males competing against females, but within hours of it being published, it was pulled without her knowledge. She also explained,
“My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall biological male, fully intact with male genitalia, 18 times per week. Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls, and others used the family bathroom to avoid this. When we tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia’s swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable, and we were offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
She noted that Penn’s actions were representative of a greater issue — the destruction of free speech, explaining,
“Today, any discussion maintaining the sanctity of women’s spaces is labeled transphobic, bigoted and hateful. What’s bigoted and hateful is discrimination against women and the efforts to erase women and our equal opportunities, dignity and safe spaces.”
She also said that the school silenced her, a survivor of sexual assault, from speaking about the issue. “This is real. I know women who have lost roster spots and spots on the podium. I know of women with sexual trauma who are adversely impacted by having biological males in their locker room without their consent. I know this because I am one of these women,” Scanlan stated.
When it was released that the Trump administration would be pausing funding to Penn, Scanlan posted several posts on X praising the move, including this one,
“Last month, Trump signed an executive order keeping men out of women’s sports. Today, he pulled $175M in federal funding from UPenn (my alma mater) for allowing a man on my swim team. This is what I voted for. More of this.”
Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, all former Penn swimmers who filed a lawsuit against school last month for allowing Thomas to swim on the women’s team, released a statement praising the Trump administration’s move.
“We are so glad that Universities are beginning to see that there is a cost to openly harming female students on their campuses and we hope the pressure only increases. Penn and other universities within the NCAA, under NCAA policy and their own rogue leadership, have violated federal law and hurt women. They have knowingly stolen opportunities and awards from women, placed women in physical danger, and facilitated the sexual harassment of female student athletes.”
They continued, “Every woman on a college campus and under NCAA regulations should be assured of Title IX protections. Institutions that disregard the well-being of women have to understand they don’t get to rewrite or ignore federal protections that women rely on.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to ban males from women’s sports and women’s locker rooms and to hold schools accountable by halting federal funding to those who refused to follow Title IX. He signed an executive order early in his term banning males from women’s sports and facilities, and his administration is now investigating education organizations that allow males to compete against women and use female spaces.
These actions are already bearing fruit. On Wednesday, the University of Maine System, one of the first schools to get a letter explaining that its funding was in jeopardy over its non-compliance with Title IX, agreed to start complying immediately.
This is a good start. But while men stealing victories and opportunities from women in sports gains the most attention, the transgender movement is hurting women in more ways than just taking their athletic achievements. Women are being put in real jeopardy, as transgenderism steals their privacy, their safety, their dignity, and their voice.
At the Freedom Center, we have shared too many stories of women and girls who were tricked or forced by school officials into sharing a hotel room, bathroom, or locker room with biological males. Tragically, we’ve also had to share stories of women and girls in schools and prisons who were sexually assaulted by males claiming to be women.
Why was this allowed to happen? It’s simple: Radical or cowardly leaders and decision-makers have elevated the desires of mentally ill or nefarious men above the dignity and safety of women.
U Penn is one of the most egregious perpetrators of this philosophy.
When the university agreed to receive federal funding, it also agreed to follow Title IX. But they didn’t follow Title IX and that decision to flout federal law was the spark that ignited the movement to protect women’s sports and women’s spaces.
On a high-profile, national stage, Thomas obliterated women’s records, stole an NCAA championship, and infiltrated women’s private locker rooms where he disrobed in front of them and forced many women to hide in bathroom stalls and broom closets as they tried to change into their swimsuits.
Penn not only didn’t stop this, they mandated it and intimidated these women into silence. The feelings of Thomas mattered more to Penn than the rights, safety, privacy, and equal opportunity of women mandated by Title IX.
Because of the courageous stand of female athletes, now universities, schools, and states will either protect women and girls or they will lose federal funding.
As Scanlan said: “More of this.”
While it sounds like the NCAA and many universities are starting to comply with Trump’s order, there are many schools and states that are still refusing.
That may soon change, however, because the message is very clear: Obey Title IX or say goodbye to your federal funding.
Money talks, as they say. Let’s hope that, like the University of Maine System, schools will quickly realize that breaking the law and your budget in furtherance of a delusional and unsustainable ideology is just not worth it.
PHOTO: Will “Lia” Thomas prepares to race against female swimmers at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022 CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot
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