NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines shared messages from fellow female athletes and parents concerned about biological men participating in women’s sports.
Gaines, who lost to transgender-identifying Lia Thomas in 2022, revealed she has received messages from Californian students and parents regarding biological males competing in women’s track and field.
“You’re a huge inspiration to me,” reads one message informing Gaines the student had not qualified for the school’s cross country team in favor of a biological male identifying as a transgender woman. “It’s my senior year in high school, and I’ll never get that chance again. Thank you for what you are doing.”
“They feel helpless,” Gaines said. “How can you read these and think whats happening is okay?”
“It’s discrimination against women and bullying at it’s finest.”
Just a few of the many messages Ive received from the girls + their parents in CA whose sport (T&F) is being infiltrated with mediocre men. They feel helpless. How can you read these and think what's happening is okay? Its discrimination against women and bullying at its finest. pic.twitter.com/pF8iUECtpx
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 25, 2023
The student also noted she had previously raced against the biological male in question during cross country saying, “it all just feels unfair.”
“I have absolutely no power to do anything,” she continued. “I am grateful that the House tried to pass a bill to change things.”
One parent informed Gaines that two biological males were taking girls spots on their daughter’s track and state high school championship.
“What can we do?” the parent asked. “It’s not my daughter’s race but I’m sure it’s coming next. I feel so powerless to stop this.”
“Can we fight this?” the parent said.
In 2022, Gaines competed against University of Pennsylvania swimmer (UPENN) Lia Thomas, who identifies as a transgender woman.
In April, Gaines was assaulted by transgender activists during a speaking event on the rights of female athletes at San Francisco State University.
“The prisoners are running the asylum at SFSU,” Gaines wrote of the incident. “I was ambushed and physically hit twice by a man.”
“I knew this was a different environment,” Gaines said of the altercation in an interview with the Daily Wire’s sports podcast Craine & Company. “I appreciated that because it meant I was getting in front of people that didn’t agree with me. … I was naive to think that they would be receptive to at least listening.”
“I was very quick to realize they didn’t care what I had to say no matter what came out of my mouth,” she continued, saying the room she spoke in was filled to capacity with a 50/50 split of supporters and protestors. “They had their signs, there was lots of heckling.”
The swimmer said SFSU’s campus police were “abysmal” and she was unaware of police presence until they began escorting her to the room she was barricaded in.
“I genuinely feared for my life,” she said of the ordeal. “The officers were scared to assert force.”
