Virginia AG’s findings from investigation into Roanoke College trans swimmer incident released by complainants

Investigation stems from 2023 case where male swimmer was allowed to switch from the men’s swim team to the women’s

By Jackson Thompson, Ryan Gaydos – Fox News, Published August 25, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released his findings of an investigation into Roanoke College, Fox News Digital learned on Monday.

Miyares’ investigation was in response to a biological male transgender swimmer that competed on Roanoke’s women’s team in 2023. Miyares concluded that the college denied the female swimmers accommodations, advantages, and privileges on the basis of sex, caused the women emotional, physical, and dignitary harms and violated the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA).

Miyares also suggested the female swimmers who were discriminated against are eligible to seek financial damages because the school’s policy violated the VHRA, as per state code.

“A private complainant who has received a notice of right to file a civil action may file a civil action under the Act for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief,” the report said.

There is currently no recorded instance of a college or university in the U.S. having to pay financial damages to women’s athletes for putting a male on their sports team. There are lawsuits over similar situations in progress that are seeking financial damages, but none have advanced to the point of any damages being paid out. 

Documents obtained by Fox News Digital stated that six female swimmers on the Roanoke College team applied for May Term Travel Courses run by the school three days before a press conference took place in which some expressed their displeasure with having a transgender swimmer on their team.

“Two weeks after the press conference, the Roanoke professors in charge of the Japan and Greece travel terms rejected the female swimmers’ applications,” Miyares’ findings said.

The documents noted that the VHRA barred “unlawful discrimination and retaliation by educational institutions on the basis of sex” and that “No educational institution may “refuse, withhold from, or deny” any accommodations, advantages, or privileges on the basis of sex.” Any implementation of a discriminatory policy would be considered discrimination under the law.

The Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, therefore, said that Roanoke College’s policy “that forces women participating in sex-separated collegiate sports to compete against individuals with the biological advantages of male puberty deprives those women of accommodations, advantages, and privileges made available to others on the basis of sex and violates the VHRA.” Additionally, allowing biological males to compete against females discriminates against females and that the VHRA would prevent biological males from competing against females at the collegiate level.

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