What’s Current: 16 UPenn swimmers sign letter supporting policy preventing males from competing against women

  • Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming and diving team signed a letter supporting USA Swimming’s new policy regarding the participation of trans-identified males in women’s swimming, which says the concentration of testosterone in their blood must be less than five nanomoles per liter continuously for at least 36 months before they apply to compete, and they must provide evidence that going through puberty as their sex assigned at birth “does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete’s cisgender female competitors.” The letter opposes Lia Thomas’ participation in the Ivy League Championships, explaining:

“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically. However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.”

  • U.K. Police in Hertfordshire apologize after wrongfully arresting a Rastafarian woman and forcing her to sit in jail naked for three hours. The woman successfully sued the police for a wrongful arrest and will receive £45,000 in damages.
  • The Independent Office for Police Conduct launch an investigation after the family of a woman who was stabbed to death by her ex-husband claim that the Metropolitan Police failed to protect her.
  • Afghanistan’s public universities have opened for the first time since the Taliban takeover, with female students joining their male counterparts on campus. The Taliban has not officially released its plan for female students, but education officials told Reuters women were allowed to attend class separately from male students.