The following are things I normally don’t contemplate in the course of a day: The University of Pennsylvania, women’s swimming.

And yet, here I am, writing about the University of Pennsylvania – henceforth to be called its sports team name, Penn, to save electrons – and women’s swimming, which I usually only watch during the Summer Olympics, if climbing or basketball isn’t on.

The reason is that Penn reached a “settlement” with the Trump administration for having allowed transgender athletes to compete for the school’s female teams. In particular, the women’s swimming team, for whom Lia Thomas set school and NCAA records three years ago – before Trump won last November’s election.

The administration claims Penn, which was adhering to NCAA policy at the time, violated Title IX rules regarding fairness in women’s participation in sports.

Penn has agreed to take away Thomas’ school records, set down its new policy in writing and apologize to women who competed against Thomas. In return, the Department of Education has agreed to release $175 million in federal funding for which Penn had already qualified.

So, to start off, let me say that while I didn’t attend Penn, I personally know some really smart people who did. 

I also know that Trump attended Penn, but given what I’ve seen from other grads, he didn’t picked up anything from history, literature or any other required courses. And I do wonder how many fellow attendees of Penn’s renowned business school, Wharton, have bankrupted six casinos?

Anyway, here’s my first thought: Thomas started competing in college as a male swimmer, and made Penn’s men’s team. After freshman year, she came out as transgender. She was unable to compete in women’s races until her transitioning hormone treatments took hold.

Thomas broke no rules that existed when all this happened. Because of the changes in her body, her race times slowed – although they were still fast enough to be among the top female swimmers in the nation.

Some of her teammates didn’t want her on the team. But some of them did. So did several swimmers from competitor schools. 

Once Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle at the NCAAs, there was an effort to take the victory away from her. And any OIympic hopes she had were dashed when swimming’s international governing body banned transgender women except for those who transitioned before puberty.

So let’s pretend – and damn I wish we really could – that Trump didn’t win last November. That he and the Republicans somehow incensed by this didn’t put their thumbs on the scale.

How could the government claim that Penn violated Title IX or any law if what they did was legitimate in 2022? Think of it this way – if New York recriminalizes marijuana in 2027 after establishing state-regulated weed shops, will the government prosecute the lines of people who go to the cannibis store in Nyack every weekend?

That’s what really troubles me about this whole thing. Trump is setting up a situation where things that were legal in the past can now not just be declared newly illegal, but prosecuted under laws that didn’t exist when the action occurred.

Meaning that you have to predict what’s going to make MAGAs upset two years from now so that you don’t violate some future law that you don’t know about.

And that’s really difficult. Because worrying about an epidemic of transgendering never seemed to be either in step with reality or much of a threat to society.

I mean, as long as someone doesn’t infringe on your rights, why do you care how they identify? I’m for being happy – if someone is going to be happier transitioning, why should they be stopped or, worse, criminalized? People have been crossing gender lines as long as people have memories.

But it’s really not about gender bending. It’s about control. It’s about deciding that your attitudes toward life need to be everybody else’s. Particularly if you can benefit from it financially or politically.

That’s what happened here. Penn broke no laws. It abided by the rules at the time. Had it barred Thomas for whatever reason, the school would have been in violation of the rules.

And yet, because a new regime with new rules took power, the school has to grovel to get the money it had already been granted. Not only that, it has to “apologize” to athletes who competed against Thomas. 

Now here’s the part that really, really bothers me:

Why didn’t Penn stand up to this?

Does the school really believe it acted wrongly or in bad faith when it let Lia Thomas swim? Did it do so with malicious intent to denigrate women’s sports, even with the support of some of their athletes?

Did the school know, when Thomas transitioned, how the hormone therapy would affect her ability to compete? Did anybody – including Thomas – know for a fact that she would retain some of her athletic skill?

And, finally, does anybody actually belief that men, in order to win some kind of athletic recognition, would subject themselves to the psychological and physical trauma of transitioning from male to female?

Is the money that big a deal? Have we become so afraid of the legal process that we fear the consequences – even if we did nothing wrong?

It’s not just Penn and it’s not just about this issue. Just this morning, Paramount, parent of CBS, agreed to pay $16 million because Trump claims “60 Minutes” manipulated an interview with Kamala Harris to his detriment. The company agreed because it wants Trump’s government to approve a merger that should be decided on its merits, not who got paid.

Columbia capitulated. Law firms capitulated. He’s trying to get Harvard to do it. There’s quite a collection of elite roadkill.

I get it – Trump perceives himself as having the power over everything. But he doesn’t – unless it’s given to him.

How do we stiffen spines for a fight to preserve this country? That’s the kind of affirming therapy the institutions we’ve thought of as the protectors of freedom need desperately. 

Right now.