President Trump signed an Executive Order on February 5 prohibiting biological males from competing in women’s sports and making federal funding depend on compliance. On March 19, a $175 million pause in federal grants and assistance was announced. This step was taken in reaction to University of Pennsylvania (Penn) swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, competing in 2022 on the Penn women’s swim team and winning the NCAA championship in the 500-meter freestyle.
At the time, the NCAA set its own rules of competition that allowed transgender females to compete with biological women. Subsequently, the NCAA ceased to decide such issues across all sports but instead relied upon international sports federation rules to decide sport by sport. World Aquatics, the international body for swimming, decided that athletes who went through male puberty had a great physiological advantage and should be barred from competition with women.
“UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room. This is NOT the result of the Title IX investigation launched by the Department of Education,” a senior White House official wrote in an email to CBS News.
The February 5 Executive Order stated:
“Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
The White House statements linking the $175 million cut to Lia Thomas are noteworthy because Executive Orders are presumed to have only prospective effect, but Thomas is no longer a college student, and her later efforts to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics as a woman were not successful. However, a pending Title IX investigation into Lia Thomas’ role on Penn’s team could result in the loss of all federal funding when concluded.
On February 4, three NCAA varsity athletes who competed against Thomas, Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist, and Margot Kaczorowski, filed suit in a federal district court in Massachusetts seeking a revision of the women’s swimming record book and a redetermination of the NCAA championships based upon excluding Lia Thomas’ performances. The defendants named in the suit were Penn, Harvard University, the Ivy League, and the NCAA.
The University of Pennsylvania, President Trump’s alma mater, has not received notice of the $175 million pause and declined comment.
This follows the $400 million cut in funding to Columbia University based on its alleged failure to adequately protect Jewish students against antisemitism. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained earlier this month about Columbia, “Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled.”
