Riley Gaines, the Kentucky swimmer who tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter freestyle event at the NCAA championships, likened the protection of women’s sports to “spiritual warfare.”
Speaking to a crowd of more than 70 people at an event hosted by Turning Point USA (TPUSA), Gaines said the fight has morphed from right vs. wrong to “moral versus evil.”
“What we’re being asked to do is to deny objective truth. It’s to deny the sky is blue, is to say that men and women are the same,” Gaines said. “We’re equal, but we’re not the same … I feel like we’re in this battle of really spiritual warfare. It’s no longer good or bad or right or wrong. This is like moral versus evil.”
Gaines added that people like her who speak out against the problem are nearly crushed by left-wing activists, citing Pennsylvania Rep. La’Tasha Mayes’ recent speech calling for Gaines to be canceled from speaking at the University of Pittsburgh.
“Someone who is supposed to uphold the law and the Constitution and what America was founded on — which is freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to protest, freedom to organize all of the amazing freedoms that we have in this country — someone who’s supposed to uphold those presented on why I should not be able to use my voice and why it’s so important that I use my voice,” Gaines said. “That’s terrifying.”
Throughout her talk, Gaines touched on a range of issues and especially scolded the Biden White House for interpreting Title IX to ban discrimination based on gender identity. She also warned against men pretending to be women in the prison system.
“I’m not saying that every trans individual transitions to win trophies or to get in women’s bathrooms or to get in women’s prisons. I’m not saying that for every trans individual. But do we not see how the system we have in place, people will take advantage of that system?” Gaines said. “We know that we live in a country where there are very deluded people … People will take advantage of the system that we have in place, that the only requirement to be a woman is to say you are a woman.”
In a recent speech at Kentucky University this year, Gaines also warned against the eradication of women.
“If you believe in science, you know there is man and woman,” Gaines said. “To deny that is to deny science, it’s to deny logic, it’s to deny reason and, quite frankly, common sense.”
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