The US education department has launched an investigation into Smith College, one of the country’s largest women’s colleges, over its policy of admitting transgender women. This marks yet another escalation in the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against transgender people, because apparently there’s always room for one more culture war.
The department’s office of civil rights announced the probe on Monday, claiming the Massachusetts college may be violating federal law by “allowing biological males into women’s intimate spaces” - a phrase that includes dorms, bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams. Because nothing says “intimate” like a government press release.
Title IX, the federal law designed to prevent sex-based discrimination in education, includes an exemption for single-sex colleges. But the department argues that exemption applies only to “biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity.” In other words, admitting transgender students means Smith might lose its single-sex designation, which the department insists would render the college meaningless. “An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” said assistant secretary for civil rights Kimberly Richey, apparently unaware that meaning is not a mathematical constant.
Smith’s current admission policy, as stated on its website, welcomes “any applicants who self-identify as women,” including “cis, trans and nonbinary women.” The college opened in 1875 and counts among its alumni multiple first ladies, elected officials, and civic leaders - none of whom, presumably, were expecting a Title IX investigation to be the headline of the day.
The investigation is part of a broader Trump administration effort to push transgender people out of public life. The administration has sued states that allow transgender athletes to compete, banned transgender people from the military, and required passports to reflect biological sex at birth. Because when you think of federal priorities, “passport gender verification” is definitely top of the list.
Smith College said it received notice of the investigation and issued a statement: “The College is fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws. The College does not comment on pending government investigations.” Translation: “We’re not saying anything, but we’re very aware of the irony.”
The complaint was filed in June 2025 by Defending Education, a rightwing education group that goes after schools and teachers unions over diversity policies. In its complaint, the group noted that Smith admits “natal men who identify as women” but not “natal women who identify as men,” calling this “yet another exercise in sex discrimination.” Because nothing says “defending education” like policing who gets to use the bathroom.
Smith first affirmed its inclusive admission policy in 2015, after a year of study and consultation with students and alumni. At the time, college leaders wrote: “The mission of Smith College is to educate women of promise for lives of distinction. In the years since Smith’s founding, concepts of female identity have evolved.” Apparently, the Trump administration disagrees with that evolution.
Last year, Smith also adopted a new NCAA policy banning transgender women from women’s sports, because even progressive colleges have to pick their battles. But apparently, that wasn’t enough to satisfy the administration’s appetite for investigation.