The United States Senate Judiciary Committee held a Wednesday hearing on the impact of transgender women and girls in sports.<\/p>\n
The Sept. 24 hearing, titled \u201cEnsuring Opportunity, Fairness and Safety for Female Athletes,\u201d made multiple references to Penn and featured discussion of 2022 College graduate Lia Thomas. Thomas swam on Penn\u2019s women\u2019s swimming and diving team amid nationwide controversy<\/a> over her participation<\/a> as a transgender athlete.<\/p>\n A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), gave opening remarks at the hearing. He said that Senate Democrats had failed to prove that transgender women should be allowed to compete in women\u2019s athletics.<\/p>\n \u201cRegarding whether it is fair for men to compete against women in sports, they were wrong on that issue in 2023, and they know they\u2019re wrong now,\u201d Grassley said.<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n During the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned<\/a> Kim Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women\u2019s Sport, about her daughter\u2019s experience competing against Thomas on Yale University\u2019s swimming and diving team.<\/p>\n Jones called losing to Thomas an \u201cinsult\u201d to female athletes. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to take,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The hearing comes several months after the Supreme Court ruled <\/a>in favor of upholding statewide bans across the country on transgender athletes. While the justices unanimously found that state bans on transgender athletes do not violate Title IX, they remained split over whether the restrictions pass constitutional muster.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Penn professors said<\/a> the court\u2019s ruling may have limited immediate effects. In July 2025, when the University settled<\/a> with the Department of Education\u2019s demands to resolve Title IX violations, Penn Athletics announced its commitment to \u201cbiology-based definitions for the words \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018female\u2019 pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump\u2019s Executive Orders.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, other faculty said that the court\u2019s decision could spark broader discussion about transgender rights and equality.<\/p>\n