Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines testified before a Senate hearing on ‘Protecting Pride’ Wednesday, explaining why she feels male athletes, or transgender women, should not be able to compete against biological women.
In her opening statement, Gaines discussed her own experience being forced by the NCAA to compete against University of Pennsylvania “transgender woman” Lia Thomas.
“…In addition to being forced to give up our awards and our titles and our opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my fellow female swimmers to share a locker room with Thomas, a 6’4″ 22-year-old male equipped with and exposing male genitalia,” she testified.
“Let me be clear about this, we were not forewarned we would be sharing a locker room. No one asked for our consent and we did not give our consent.”
Addressing Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Riley said, “You had mentioned ‘what message does it send to trans individuals?’ My combat to that is: what message does this send to women, to young girls, to have their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window?”
Chiming in during the testimony of a Democrat witness, who sourced a “news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis” as evidence women can compete against men, Gaines quickly corrected the record, pointing out “Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player.”
Subsequently asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) whether 80 percent of Americans support males competing in women’s sports, the Dem witness said she could not corroborate those numbers.
“Well, I can say that it’s not even close,” Graham replied. “There’s nothing wrong with you if you have a problem with Ms. Gaines feeling cheated; there’s nothing wrong with you if you have a problem with Ms. Gaines feeling uncomfortable in a locker room; there’s nothing wrong with you.”
The Democrat witness also danced around Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) question asking her the differences between men and women:
Speaking to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Riley testified Thomas’ team members were forced to take mandatory LGBTQ sensitivity meetings where they were “emotionally blackmailed” and told that criticizing Thomas could cause him to commit suicide and ultimately leave them responsible.
Gaines later told Hawley, “We only became aware we’d be undressing next to a man when we had to see a man undressing while we were simultaneously undressing.”
She says when she asked officials what the locker room guidelines were, she was told the rules had changed to make the bathrooms unisex.
“Any man could have walked into our locker room… and we weren’t forewarned about it,” Gaines testified.
Sen. Hawley next brought up a recent comment by Thomas criticizing his detractors, in which he said, “They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs.”
“Do you want to respond to that?” Hawley asked.
“The meaning of what it means to be a feminist is to uphold, respect, honor embrace and celebrate women on our own physical ceilings, our own uniqueness… What this really is a man mansplaining what it is to be a feminist, which I honestly think is pretty ironic,” Gaines responded.
Gaines became a spokesperson for the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and has been an outspoken activist on fairness in women’s sports after losing a competition to Thomas.
Watch the hearing in full:
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