Trump's Education Dept. claims San José State violated Title IX with trans inclusion in women's sports

The Trump administration claims San José State University in California violated federal law by allowing a transgender woman to play on the women’s volleyball team.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights made the announcement Wednesday. In February, it opened an investigation into San José State, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for potential violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.

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“SJSU caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team — creating unfairness in competition, compromising safety, and denying women equal opportunities in athletics, including scholarships and playing time, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a press release, misgendering the trans woman. “Even worse, when female athletes spoke out, SJSU retaliated — ignoring sex-discrimination claims while subjecting one female SJSU athlete to a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete competing on a women’s team. This is unacceptable. We will not relent until SJSU is held to account for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities.”

The San José State Spartans women’s volleyball team was reported to have had a transgender player from 2022 to 2024, although the team has not confirmed that, nor has a trans player come out. Her presence became controversial only in the fall of 2024, after she was outed, and several women’s volleyball teams forfeited games against the Spartans because they objected to competing against a trans player.

Some competitors, former players, and even one of her teammates and a San José State associate coach, later suspended, tried to keep her from participating in the Mountain West Conference tournament in November 2024. They filed a lawsuit and sought an emergency injunction barring her from playing, but courts denied their request. San José State lost the tournament final to Colorado State.

To resolve the claim, the Education Department issued these demands to the university, referring to trans women as “male”: issue a public statement “that SJSU will adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ and acknowledge that the sex of a human – male or female – is unchangeable”; separate sports and intimate facilities based on biological sex; promise not to delegate its Title IX compliance obligation to any external association or entity and not to contract with any entity that discriminates on the basis of sex; “restore to individual female athletes all individual athletic records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in women’s categories, and issue a personalized letter of apology on behalf of SJSU to each female athlete for allowing her participation in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination”; and “send a personalized apology to every woman who played in SJSU’s women’s indoor volleyball (2022–2024), 2023 beach volleyball, and to any woman on a team that forfeited rather than compete against SJSU while a male student was on the roster — expressing sincere regret for placing female athletes in that position.”

“If San José State rejects the proposed deal, it could face a Justice Department lawsuit and risk losing federal funding,” the Associated Press reports.

Related: Supreme Court seems likely to rule against transgender athletes in school sports programs

The administration last year found the University of Pennsylvania had violated Title IX by allowing trans women to compete on women’s teams. The university settled the matter by banning trans athletes from women’s sports and stripping alum Lia Thomas, a trans woman, of her swimming titles. The investigations were announced a day after Donald Trump signed an executive order saying his administration would consider only “biological sex,” as assigned at birth, and not gender identity in enforcement of Title IX. At the signing ceremony, he falsely suggested that trans athletes have won “more than 3,500 victories” and “invaded more than 11,000 competitions,” citing isolated cases while misrepresenting the reality of transgender participation in sports. The Massachusetts investigation appears unresolved.

Joe Biden's administration held that Title IX banned discrimination against trans women as well as cisgender women.

The university released this statement: "San José State, a member of the California State University system, received notification from the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights regarding its investigation into athletics participation on our past women’s volleyball teams. The Department informed the University of the outcome of its investigation and its findings. The University is in the process of reviewing the Department’s findings and proposed resolution agreement.

"We remain committed to providing a safe, respectful, and inclusive educational environment for all students while complying with applicable laws and regulations."