{"id":625375,"date":"2026-05-05T19:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625375\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:12:08","slug":"trump-administration-investigates-smith-college-for-admitting-transgender-women-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625375\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration investigates Smith College for admitting transgender women | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US education department is investigating one of the country\u2019s largest women\u2019s colleges over its admittance of transgender women in another escalation of the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s attacks on trans people.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s office of civil rights announced the investigation on Monday in a press release<\/a>, saying the Massachusetts college could be violating federal law by \u201callowing biological males into women\u2019s intimate spaces\u201d, including dorms, bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.<\/p>\n

Title IX, the federal law that seeks to prevent sex-based discrimination in education and extracurriculars, includes an exemption for all-male or all-female colleges. But, the department said, that applies only to \u201cbiological sex difference, not subjective gender identity\u201d. Admitting transgender students would mean the college no longer qualifies as single sex.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn all-women\u2019s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,\u201d assistant secretary for civil rights, Kimberly Richey, said in a statement. \u201cAllowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law. The Trump administration<\/a> will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s admission policy allows for \u201cany applicants who self-identify as women\u201d, including \u201ccis, trans and nonbinary women\u201d, according to the college\u2019s website<\/a>. The college opened in 1875 and counts among its alumni multiple first ladies, elected officials and civic leaders.<\/p>\n

The investigation comes as the Trump administration seeks to drive transgender people out of public spaces. The administration has sought to end transgender participation in sports, including filing lawsuits against states that allow such participation, and is seeking to ban access to gender-affirming medical care. Donald Trump<\/a> banned trans people from joining the military and required passports to match biological sex at birth.<\/p>\n

The college said in a statement that it has received notice of the Title IX investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college is fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe college does not comment on pending government investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rightwing education group, Defending Education, filed a complaint in June 2025 to the education department\u2019s office of civil rights against Smith, urging the department to investigate the college. The group goes after schools and teachers unions nationwide over diversity policies and perceived biases, saying it wants to \u201cfight indoctrination in classrooms and on campus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, in what appears to be yet another exercise in sex discrimination, Smith admits natal men who identify as women but does not admit natal women who identify as men,\u201d Defending Education wrote in its complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The college affirmed in 2015 that its policy would include admitting transgender women, which came after a year of studying the issue and conferring with students and alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission of Smith College is to educate women of promise for lives of distinction. In the years since Smith\u2019s founding, concepts of female identity have evolved. Smith alumnae have been leaders in the movement to afford women greater freedoms of aspiration and self-expression,\u201d the college\u2019s leaders wrote at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, Smith College said<\/a> it would follow a new policy from the National Collegiate Athletic Association on transgender participation in athletics, which prohibits transgender women from playing in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US education department is investigating one of the country\u2019s largest women\u2019s colleges over its admittance of transgender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-625375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}