Kari Lake, President Donald Trump's top adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told Newsmax on Wednesday that female athletes across the country were damaged by male-born athletes competing in women's sports, singling out the University of Pennsylvania for policies that she said robbed young women of victories and scholarships.
On "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Lake praised a new agreement between Penn and the federal government that prohibits male-born athletes from participating in women's sporting events. Lake said the deal marks an overdue correction to years of harm done to biological females in high school and college athletics.
"It's a massive victory," Lake said. "You know, it's sad, though, that that moment was lost. That moment of victory was lost for the athletes along the way."
The university's deal, reported Tuesday by The New York Times, comes in response to a federal civil rights investigation tied to male-born swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed on the Penn women's swim team in 2021 and 2022.
As part of the agreement, Penn pledged to use biology-based definitions of "male" and "female" following the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX, the federal law banning sex-based discrimination in education.
Lake said the policy changes cannot undo the missed opportunities for many young women.
"Not just at UPenn, but at schools all across this country and all across high schools across the country as well," Lake said. "I wish they could actually redo the award ceremony and give the women who really did win the awards their award."
She added, "I also think of the damage that's been done to the high school athletes who had to compete in high school with men who were faking being women on these athletic teams, and they lost their ability to even get a college scholarship because they weren't able to set the records that they should have. I don't know how you undo it all, but this is a really good start."
The new agreement also led Penn to revise its athletic records. Thomas is no longer listed as the record-holder in three freestyle events, though the school included a note acknowledging that Thomas set the records under the eligibility rules in place at the time.
"I like the idea of the public apologies, and I also like the idea of giving them the award," she said. "As I said, those women who never got their chance to even compete in college because they had to compete with men in high school, it's a little too late."
Lake said the debate over transgender inclusion in women's athletics opened many Americans' eyes to what she called "insanity."
"It's closing a very ugly chapter," she said. "A chapter that, as ugly as it was, was definitely a wake-up call for a lot of Americans who were on the sidelines, maybe not paying attention. And it woke them up, and it woke them up big time. And so hopefully we never go back to that kind of insanity again."
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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