A women’s college admitted trans women for a decade and nobody cared. Then they invited Admiral Rachel Levine to give a commencement speech. A conservative legal group filed a complaint. Now the Department of Education is opening a Title IX investigation into Smith College for violating women’s rights — by admitting women the administration doesn’t recognize as women.
Title IX was written to stop universities from discriminating against women. The Trump administration is using it to make women’s colleges decide which women count. Smith, Wellesley, and Mount Holyoke are all in range. The law that opened doors is now being used to check IDs at them.
The tell is in the timeline. Smith’s trans admission policy is from 2015. It sat there for ten years and nobody moved. Then in 2025, they gave an honorary degree to Rachel Levine — trans woman, longtime public health official — and suddenly there’s a civil rights emergency. They don’t care about Title IX. They care that a women’s college honored someone they hate, and this was the lever available. Government as a spite machine, powered by watchdog group complaint forms.