Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines graduated summa cum laude in May 2022, fully intending to pursue dental school. However, the then-22-year-old soon found herself on a different career trajectory: spearheading a nationwide movement aimed at restoring fairness in women’s sports.
Now 24, Ms. Gaines, founder of The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute, works to combat the inclusion of biological males in female spaces—a pursuit she says she’s undertaken on behalf of young girls across the country.
“It’s much bigger than me. I’m done competing, so it’s quite literally not about me, at least in the sports aspect of things,” said Ms. Gaines, who married her husband, Louis Barker, shortly after graduating from college.
‘Denying Biblical Truth’
During the episode, which was published on May 20, the Tennessee native criticized the idea that gender is a social construct.“Because the premise of this entire—the gender ideology movement as a whole—is that we’re denying, of course, Biblical truth, but objective truth, like biological reality,” she explained. “Hate to break it to you ... we’re all here from man and woman.”
Ms. Gaines told the songwriters that she has leaned on her faith throughout her advocacy work, especially when meeting with lawmakers to craft legislation that protects women’s rights, something she had no prior experience in.
“Now that I look back at it, my understanding at the time was that God calls people who are prepared, and He calls those who are equipped,” she noted. “But me, understand, I never took a government course.”
“I took history in high school, ninth-grade history. That’s the extent of my history knowledge. I knew we had three branches of government; I didn’t know what they did,” Ms. Gaines admitted.
‘My Stance Is Pro-Woman’
In March, Ms. Gaines and 15 other female college athletes filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). They accused the organization of violating their rights under Title IX—a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools—by allowing swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as transgender, to compete in the 2022 Women’s NCAA Swimming Championships.“Their most basic duty, the NCAA, is to provide equal opportunity, to provide safety in sports, and to provide privacy in areas I’m undressing,” she said, referring to details contained in the lawsuit, such as that the women had been expected to share a locker room with Lia Thomas. “And they failed and continue to fail on every account of that,” she said.
“Five years ago, a man walks into a women’s locker room ... still active with women, still dating women—walks into the women’s locker room, disrobes entirely, fully exposed, fully intact, all that, where we’re non-consensually being exploited,” she said. “A DA would follow this man into the locker room, pull him out and he'd be arrested for voyeurism, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, whatever it is. But now, not only is it allowed, it’s celebrated.”
Last December, Ms. Gaines testified before Congress at a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing, urging lawmakers to protect women’s sports and Title IX ahead of the Biden administration’s overhaul of the federal civil rights law, later unveiled on April 19. Under the new regulations, which go into effect on Aug. 1, sexual discrimination in school programs and activities will now include discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
“I looked at her and I said, ‘Representative Lee, if my testimony makes me transphobic, then understand by your own logic, your opening monologue makes you a misogynist,’” Ms. Gaines recounted during the podcast.
“I'll be very frank, my stance is pro-woman. I’m standing for something. I’m standing for women. I’m not standing against anything,” she said. “But if being pro-woman is immediately deemed anti-trans, then wouldn’t being pro-trans inherently be anti-woman?”
