Watch: Swimmer Riley Gaines Testifies About Violent Backlash Faced Since Speaking Out Against Trans in Women’s Sports
Gaines recounts trauma of being forced to compete against biological male, and subsequent violent backlash from woke far leftists at San Francisco State University.
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines testified before a Homeland Security committee Tuesday, recounting the trauma of competing against transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, and the subsequent violence she endured from radical leftists after speaking out.
Gaines, who’s a spokeswoman for the International Women’s Forum, discussed her experience at the 2022 NCAA championships and horror tales she heard from other women who were made uncomfortable when they were exposed to Thomas’ male genitalia after sharing a locker room with him.
Riley Gaines’s testimony before a congressional subcommittee regarding the violence she experienced at San Francisco State 5/16/23#SaveWomensSports #WomenAreReal pic.twitter.com/clSIViIZ74
— WomenAreReal (@WomenAreReals) May 16, 2023
“My name is Riley Gaines. I’m a 12-time All-American swimmer from the University of Kentucky,” the former college swimmer began.
“Competing in the women’s division of the 2022 NCAA championships myself and my teammates and competitors around the country were required to compete and share a locker room with Lia Thomas, a biological male who competed on the men’s team at University of Pennsylvania.”
“In the 200-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships Thomas and I tied. Despite going the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second the NCAA insisted on giving Thomas the trophy as they explained this was necessary for photo purposes and told me that I had to go home empty-handed.”
🔥 Riley Gaines 🔥 pic.twitter.com/l9gQNA4bqU
— WomenAreReal (@WomenAreReals) May 16, 2023
“At our national championships I looked around and wondered why no one was standing up for myself and the other women in the pool and in that locker room. I talked to my teammates and competitors at the Championships,” Gaines said. “I discovered that the overwhelming majority of the girls shared the extreme discomfort of being forced to strip down in front of a male who was intact with and exposing male genitalia, And that same room after seeing how this affected every girl at that meet, I decided I would stand up and speak out.”
The swimmer’s comments come after she was physically assaulted by unhinged trans activists in April after presenting a speech at a college campus in California arguing trans “women” don’t belong in women’s sports.
On April 6 of 2023 I traveled to San Francisco State University to speak to a campus group on the right of women to compete on a level playing field and sport. The school administration was aware of my visit and the program had been publicized on campus. I was told I would be met by the campus police and briefed on a security plan an hour and a half before the event, but the police failed to show up to our scheduled meeting. I went to the classroom building where I was to speak, which was on the third floor, and I entered the room, which soon began to fill with protesters. Still the campus officers did not show like I was told they would, and I began my speech, and the protesters in the room, they were not generally disruptive. However, I could hear chanting from outside the hallway and I sensed the situation outside was growing confrontational, which was unnerving, but no one provided any guidance to alert me that my safety was at risk. They continuously chanted outside the room, ‘We fight back!’ and that’s when I began to fear for my safety.
As I ended my presentation protesters in the room opened the locked doors and a chaotic flood of shouting, angry protesters forced their way in. They rushed at me with fists raised, most shouting and angry faces coming around me. They flickered the lights and ultimately, then turned the lights off. The room filled with glares of cell phone flashlights, some in my face and I realized I was at the mercy of the crowd and I was assaulted.
A woman grabbed me and told me she was with the campus police and pulled me towards the door, but I did not believe she was with the police because she wore no clothes that indicated she was an officer, and she had a face covering on so I couldn’t see her face, and I resisted going with her, but I recognized I really had no choice because I couldn’t have made it out without help. And again, I really, truly feared for my life but once we made it into the hallway, we were met with an even larger mob blocking the stairway exit ultimately forcing us to barricade ourselves into an office alongside the same hallway.
The small room we had found would be my prison for the next three hours. And in those hours, I was certainly held against my will. The mob screamed, vengeful, racist, violent, awful things at both myself and the officers, and I received no assurance that I would get out of that situation. When I needed consoling from the officers because I was so flustered and confused, they told me they cannot provide me with that because it seemed too controversial for them. When I had expressed that I had been hit. No one asked me if I was okay or no one asked me if I need medical attention. When I realized I missed my flight back home due to being held hostage, I became visibly upset and told the Lieutenant in the room that I just wanted to make it home and he responded back with, ‘Don’t you think we all want to go home? After a while, some of these protesters began to demand a ransom for my release. They’d asked for payment and threatened not to safely release me without it. And I heard adult administrator who I learned to be the Dean of students from outside the door trying to negotiate my release with the students. They said my appearance on campus was so traumatic that they were owed something. They were under the false notion the university paid me to be there therefore they only thought it was fair that I should pay them if I wanted to leave.
After hours of being held against my will the officers from the city of San Francisco police department finally arrived and they were much more methodical and assertive in developing a strategy and it was around midnight that I was finally able to leave.
Watch Gaines’ testimony in full below:
