Public speaker and former swimmer Riley Gaines visited SUNY Cortland Friday as the last stop on her “Reclaim Feminism” Campus Tour. For roughly an hour and a half, Gaines spoke about her experience shifting from a swimmer to public figure and voiced her opinions on transgender athletes competing in sports.
In 2022 Riley Gaines competed against transgender woman Lia Thomas in the 200 freestyle. Despite Gaines and Thomas tying for fifth place, Thomas received a trophy but Gaines did not. Since then, Gaines has become a public figure advocating for her positions on “fairness” and women’s rights.
The debate on transgender athletes competing in sports has been a hot topic that has only grown over the past couple of years. In that time, several new rules and laws have been passed that have restricted transgender athletes from competing in school sports.
On April 20, 2023, Congress passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act which prohibits school athletic programs from allowing individuals whose assigned sex at birth was male to participate in sports programs that are for women and girls.
Throughout the event, Riley Gaines spoke about her experience and what led her to become a public speaker. Something that Gaines reiterated throughout the entire night was that she does not consider herself anti-trans, but pro-women.
I found this confusing, as Gaines’s has made many anti-trans statements in the past, and, as I listened, throughout the talk at Cortland. Speaking at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit, held in 2023, also hosted by TPUSA, Gaines said that the debate on transgender athletes competing in sports was a matter of “spiritual warfare” and “moral versus evil.” On Friday night, Gaines said that she doesn’t consider people who identify as trans evil. Has she changed her mind?
Sadly, no. Throughout Friday’s event Gaines would say she is not anti-trans, but would follow quickly with remarks jabbing the transgender community. When talking about Transgender male swimmer and Yale University undergraduate, Iszac Henig, Gaines made a joke about how the only person he beat while competing on his men’s swim team was a guy with one arm. Gaines added that it was like an episode of South Park.
Also, throughout the night Gaines refused to call Lia Thomas “she,” and a lot of the time when she would refer to Lia, she would just call her by her last name, occasionally deadnaming her. This is an anti-trans action, but Gaines continued to insist she was not anti-trans.
My biggest issue though with Riley Gaine’s speech was a lack of solutions. Gaines would propose issues that make for an actual debate– issues that made me think, “Okay, this is an interesting point, but what do you propose?” Unfortunately, Gaines offered no solutions, and just kept repeating her issues that she has with transgender athletes competing in sports, and the schools that allow it.
All of this continued into the Q&A session that was held at the end of the event. One attendee asked the question, “What is your advice to fathers of daughters who play sports when you realize there is a trans athlete competing against my daughter?” Gaines’s response to this was that parents should prevent this from happening, but that was not what the man asked. As she did throughout the Q&A, Gaines tip-toed around the question without actually answering it.
Gaines would bring up something mildly interesting, but then she would say the most outlandish and childish thing, like making fun of California Senator Scott Weiner’s name and his gay kickball league.
Gaines continuously derailed from her own argument. She was supposedly at Cortland to speak about her opinions on transgender athletes competing in sports, but she often left that subject far behind. Multiple times, Gaines kept bringing up religion and God, and at one point she somehow got on the subject of World War II. One of the wildest quotes of the night: “We are declining because we live in a Godless society and this nation is riddled with weak men.” Okay. She also veered into a discussion of how AIDS is running rampant in prisons. I couldn’t tell you how that was relevant to athletics.
I was surprised how excited the audience was getting. Gaines would say the most unhinged thing and the audience would eat it right up. The turnout was surprisingly large with over 200 people attending the event. People were cheering and wooing, and I would just sit back in my seat asking, “Why are you cheering for this?”
This is what I and several others predicted would come of Turning Point USA being on campus. Allowing events such as this is only spreading more hate on campus that will only make people feel less safe. Attacking minorities and advocating for their rights to be taken away is only spreading more hate and causing more separation and fear on this campus.