The same suspects — mostly liberal Democrats, Progressives, and various other leftists — who were once the loudest champions of Title IX and women’s sports, are now flouting federal law and filing lawsuits to prevent women from successfully competing in those sports. The favored class these days appears to be men who either believe they are women or, as many suspect, are merely pretending to be women.

A high-profile example is that of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), which the U.S. Department of Education announced at the end of April is in violation of Title IX by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. Specifically, the department is referring to the 2022 swimming competition in which a biological male, “Lia,” a.k.a William Thomas, who ranked 462 in men’s swimming, overwhelmingly beat his female competitors in women’s swimming when he decided he was really a girl.

A press release dated April 28 from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) charged that “the University’s policies and practices violated Title IX by denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the Education Department, Craig Trainor, said the Trump Administration “will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories.”

The administration is requiring UPenn to issue a statement to its university community that it “will comply with Title IX in all of its athletic programs; restore to female athletes all individual athletic records, titles, honors, awards or similar recognition for Division I swimming competitions misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories,” and; send a letter of apology on behalf of the university to each female student whose individual recognition is restored “for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.”

At risk for UPenn and other schools that allow men to invade women’s sports and locker rooms is the withdrawal of federal financial assistance. As the Washington Free Beacon reported, the Education Department’s non-compliance finding “comes weeks after the Trump administration revoked $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and warned of additional cuts over the school’s inclusion of biological men in women’s sports.”

UPenn swimmers Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, among a dozen other female athletes, famously filed suit against the NCAA in 2024 for violating Title IX by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports. Three of the UPenn swimmers who were forced to compete against “Lia” Thomas also sued the university.

On February 5 of this year, President Trump signed an executive order banning biological men from participating in women’s sports. One of the plaintiffs in the suit against UPenn told the Free Beacon she was “thrilled to see that there are finally people in positions of power willing to support and protect women.”

The president’s EO noted: “In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports ... This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

Defiance in Maine

The Education Department’s OCR also found that the state of Maine “violated federal Title IX anti-discrimination law after Katie Spencer, a young transgender pole vaulter, won a state championship.” The department said Maine could also lose federal funding “if it doesn’t ‘swiftly and completely’ reverse its policies.” Like Thomas, Spencer competed much more successfully against women than when he competed in men’s events.

The outcry that followed Spencer’s win — he jumped more than six inches higher than his nearest female competitor — culminated in a “televised spat” between Maine’s Democrat Governor, Janet Mills, and President Trump during a governors’ meeting at the White House in February. Mills promised to see the president “in court” when he threatened to pull Maine’s federal funding if the state did not comply with his executive order. The administration later released a statement calling Mills’ refusal to support women and girls “shameful,” but the state wasted no time in filing suit.

In connection with the controversy, the Maine House of Representatives censured Representative Laurel Libby (R-Minot) in March for a Facebook post she made in support of the female pole vaulters who were defeated by Spencer. Libby’s post contrasted how the male student just one year previously had competed in the boys’ pole vault, finishing in 5th place. “Tonight,” she observed, “’Katie’ won 1st place in the girls Maine State Class B Championship.”

Maine’s Democrat House Speaker and majority leader, Ryan Fecteau, demanded she remove the post, and when she failed to do so, passed a motion along party lines to censure her. Libby is forbidden to speak on the House floor or vote on any legislation until she makes an apology, which she has similarly refused to do, insisting that her post “was intended to stand up for women and girls.”

Instead, Libby sued the Speaker for violating her First Amendment free speech rights, but all the district judges in Maine recused themselves from her case. Quoted in the New York Post, free-speech attorney Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said: “Stripping an elected representative of her right to speak and vote for refusing to delete a lawful Facebook post is a blatant violation of free speech and the First Amendment.... The Constitution doesn’t grant lawmakers the power to muzzle colleagues for making arguments on one of the hottest topics of the day in a way that they don’t like.”

Thus far, Biden-appointed Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose has ruled against Libby, as has the First Circuit Court of Appeals, forcing her to seek redress from the U.S. Supreme Court. On May 20, CBS News and other sources reported that the high court granted Libby’s request for emergency relief, restoring her right to vote in the Maine House, at least for now.

In early May, Maine dropped its lawsuit against the Trump Administration after federal funding was restored for the “Child Nutrition Program of the Maine Department of Education.” However, the state still faces “other legal battles related to the transgender issue,” namely the lawsuit for its continued defiance of Trump’s EO to keep biological males out of girls’ and women’s sports and for violations against Title IX.

Divided states and opinions

During his administration, Joe Biden tried to make transgender students a protected class by redefining sex to mean “gender identity” under Title IX. (See Education Reporter, January 2025 and May 2024.) But the administration’s draft rule governing “fairness” for transgender athletes was withdrawn, and as The 74 reported, “protections for LGBTQ students have been repeatedly struck down by the courts.”

The states are evenly divided on the issue, with a total of 23 and the District of Columbia allowing trans athletes to play on sports teams that reflect the gender with which they identify. Many states that oppose transgender participation cite safety concerns and a desire to protect woman and girls.

The 74 pointed out that, similar to Maine, “several states are finding that adhering to their own laws can invite a federal investigation — and an abrupt cut in aid — from an administration that is comfortable calling out educators who they see as failing to protect young women in sports.”

A cacophony of responses to the specter of biological men playing women’s sports has surfaced in recent months, due not only to the emphasis placed on it by the Trump Administration, but also to overwhelming evidence that, not only do they put biological females at risk of injury — including serious injury — but they typically beat their female opponents by substantial margins. Last year, National Review described a UN study which found that “female athletes lost nearly 900 medals to transgender-identifying male competitors who had intruded into women’s sports.”

Titled “Violence against women and girls in sports,” the UN study showed that by March 2024, “over 600 female athletes in more than 400 women’s division events across 29 different sports were defeated by transgender-identifying men,” losing more than 890 medals to biological male competitors. Other studies have shown that it matters little whether or not the male athletes are receiving hormone therapy.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that “about two-thirds of U.S. adults support policies requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.” While 56 percent of respondents said they believe “trans people” should be protected from discrimination “in jobs, housing, and public spaces such as restaurants/stores,” 53 percent “oppose or strongly oppose requiring health insurance companies to cover medical care for gender transitions.”

And opposition to biological men competing against women appears to span the political spectrum. As ABC News and other outlets reported, for example, California Governor Gavin Newsome broke with his party on a recent podcast, noting that “transgender athletes playing in female sports is ‘deeply unfair.’” He also speculated that Kamala Harris hurt her presidential prospects by supporting “taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical care for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.” Whether Newsome is sincere or merely grandstanding to appear more moderate in preparation for a 2028 presidential run is anyone’s guess.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), chaired a hearing of the U.S. House DOGE subcommittee on May 7, in which she took USA Fencing chairman, Damien Lehfeldt to task for allowing biological males in female fencing competitions. The hearing was held in response to reports of a female fencer who refused to compete against a biological man that identifies as a woman.

Greene quoted from a blog post of Lehfeldt’s in which he shared his feelings about his daughter “hypothetically competing against a man.” Greene charged: “You came here today to defeat women in their own sport. You are a man who would tell his daughter to lose to a biological man and enjoy it!” Greene further noted on X: “I will NEVER accept men beating women down in their own sports.”

Meanwhile, Laurel Libby told the New York Post of the Maine House’s action against her: “Our female athletes are already having to compete against biological males, and now they’re being told by this censuring action not to even speak up about it — to sit down and shut up, essentially.” Many observers in Maine and across the country agree it’s a terrible message.

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