Riley Gaines Testifies Before Senate About Competing Against Biological Male Lia Thomas
“If nothing else, I truly hope you-all, you can see this is a violation of our right to privacy and how some of us have felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, and even traumatized by this experience.”
Former college swimmer Riley Gaines has become a voice for protecting women and girls in sports in recent months. This week, she offered testimony that was emotional at times, about competing against trans swimmer and biological male Lia Thomas.
The Daily Signal provides a partial transcript:
In addition to being forced to give up our awards and our titles and our opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to swim, to share a locker room with Thomas, a 6’2″, 22-year-old male, equipped with and exposing male genitalia.
Let me be clear about this: We were not forewarned we would be sharing a locker room. No one asked for our consent and we did not give our consent. And I’ll set the scene—a swimming locker room is not a place of modesty.
You’re undressing, you’re fully exposed, and we were forced to take off our swimsuit in front of a man, who was doing the exact same thing.
If nothing else, I truly hope you-all, you can see this is a violation of our right to privacy and how some of us have felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, and even traumatized by this experience.
I know that I don’t speak for every single person who competed against Lia Thomas, but I know I speak for many.
Because I saw the tears, I saw the tears from the ninth and 17th place finishers, who missed out on being named an All-American by one place. And I can attest to the extreme discomfort in the locker room, from these 18- to 22-year-old girls, when you turn around and there’s male eyes watching in that same room.
See the video below:
During the same hearing, Gaines’ claims were challenged by queer activist Kelley Robinson. Gaines shut her down quickly.
From FOX News:
Riley Gaines grand slams queer activist’s Senate testimony that men can’t beat Serena Williams
Former NCAA swim star Riley Gaines slammed the president of far-left Human Rights Campaign for denying the biological advantages of male athletes in a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Kelley Robinson, who describes herself as the first queer, Black president of the Human Rights Campaign, claimed that tennis legend Serena Williams could beat men at the sport at the hearing on “Protecting Pride: Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.”
“There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis,” Robinson said. “And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them.”
Gaines, a University of Kentucky 12-time All-American swimmer who tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, immediately shut down Robinson’s claim: “Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player.”
Watch the clip:
Dem witness: "There's been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis. And it's just not the case. She is stronger than them." @Riley_Gaines_: "Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player." pic.twitter.com/MSAnV6IA5t
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 21, 2023
Back in 2012, Democrats waged a narrative war on Republicans, claiming that they were fighting a “war on women.”
Today, they attack women who object to the trans agenda. Ironic, isn’t it?
"Sen. Durbin … you had mentioned this 'rhetoric.' You had mentioned 'what message does it send to trans individuals?' My combat to that is: what message does this send to women, to young girls … their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window?" @Riley_Gaines_ pic.twitter.com/vBHgW7AJyy
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 21, 2023
.@Riley_Gaines_ to Sen. Dick Durbin: "You had mentioned 'what message does it send to trans individuals?' My combat to that is: what message does this send to women, … their rights to privacy and safety thrown out of the window? … What about us?" pic.twitter.com/Bj6RquYL73
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 21, 2023
Featured image via YouTube.
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Dem witness: “There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis. And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them.”
@Riley_Gaines_: “Both Serena and Venus lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player.”
The story is even better. The Williams’ had claimed that they could beat any guy ranked over 200. Karsten Braach was ranked 203 and accepted the challenge. They played informal sets. Braach destroyed them, beating Serena 6-1 and Venus 6-2. Afterwards, the Williams updated their estimate to beating any guy ranked worse than 350, but in the ensuing week, Braach lost some ranking points from the year before and dropped down to around 351 or so. He said that he would be happy to take them up, again. They never answered and the Williams’ never again mentioned playing men.
The next time anything about this sort of thing came out was when John McEnroe, who loves Serena, said that she was the greatest female player ever but that she would only rank around 650 on the men’s tour. The tennis world went completely apoplectic at this obvious fact being said aloud and it was immediately dropped from conversation.
The fact is that women trail men in athletic events by about 10%-15% across the field, which is a gigantic margin that renders them completely uncompetitive. Everyone with a brain understands this. 17 year old boys can routinely beat world class women in most sports events.
Bobby Riggs (who was over the hill and out of shape) threw that laughable match with Billie Jean King. It was a total dive. Just before that match Riggs had wiped the floor with the then World #1 female player. He threw the Billie Jean match and everyone knew it, but Billie Jean and the women in tennis made pretend that it was real to push their crazy positions on women being paid by men’s standards rather than by how many seats they can fill.
It’s not as bad as it looks. Riggs and King were friends and Riggs a showman. Battle of the Sexes was hype for the time. Everybody watched.
The Williams sisters were great in their prime. But I doubt if they could have beaten the 1000th player on the ATP list though. Current average first serve speed on women’s tour is 99 mph. Equivalent men’s is 117 mph, about a 20% difference.
When Kelley Robinson said, “There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis. And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them,” I think Ms. Robinson is lied about the article. At best she allowed herself, for evil purposes, to be taken in by a click-bait headline. That headline can be seen here: https://www.sportbible.com/tennis/one-in-eight-men-think-they-can-beat-serena-williams-sboz-20220721
In that article, after a couple of dissembling paragraphs, the author (with some bizarre editorializing) gets at the truth (emphasis added):
Heck, if Serena were playing against me and double-faulted, I would win a point. Note that even 3% of women think they could win a point off Serena.
Riley Gaines can’t be commended enough. Too bad there aren’t a lot more like her.
“The Williams’ had claimed that they could beat any guy ranked over 200… Afterwards, the Williams updated their estimate to beating any guy ranked worse than 350”
Just stop it, ladies — you’re beclowning yourselves with these embarrassing self-assessments before you even set foot on the court.
Women can serve only as victims. So the story is always that men are better at everything.
Oddly women choose the story. It’s a habit, or maybe it’s biological like nagging.
I think they assign the wrong women in women’s studies classes. They should pick Vicki Hearne. Adam’s Task, Bandit, or Animal Happiness.
Feminine instinct applied correctly in a world of males.
Just offhand, in Animal Happiness, I remember Hearne taking on Derrida, Kant and Harold Bloom, with slight feminine corrections to their assumptions. “Mistakes with things that follow from them are tricky things,” as she said on one of Kant’s essays.
It is a disgrace that we even have to have this conversation. Men are men and women are women. The whole thing stinks of our having lost common sense and of how our nation has become utterly insane over sports.
Back in the day, if you were male and you couldn’t excel in athletics, you found another interest–academics, literature, skilled work, art, music, science, yadda yadda. If you felt you had to prove yourself by beating the girls, well, shame on you, and you rightly win the contempt of your male peers.
Further, does anyone–including the most passionate trans activists–truly believe that a Dick Levine or a Bruce Jenner is as much as woman as the mother who bore him or the wife who bore his kids? I doubt it. People like Levine and Jenner evolved from bad entertainment mocking real women to become oh-so-serious-minded eunuchs with fake breasts and wearing drag. The whole world knows it, but nobody seems to have the courage to say it.
It is incredible that this is even in question. Male/female is as basic as gravity. It is!
Everyone fails to get the dems message….women must submit.
A man used to be arrested for “peeping” into a woman’s bedroom window but now a man can stand in front of woman, naked, and leer at them while they are undressed.
We have come a long way, baby!
I don’t understand what relevance the Williams’ have to Gaines’ testimony.
The whole issue isn’t if “one trans can beat any particular non-trans” or vice versa. That discussion is just a red herring to deflect the truth of the testimony that such a battle is in any way a fair and level playing field in the spirit of true athletics integrity.
And if the Progressive/Left/etc want to make that comparison, then doesn’t every successful black (or lgbtq+) who “can beat a non-lgbqt+” in politics, business, social star show that they ARE NOT disadvantaged? Don’t those “successes” undermine that whole victimhood mentality?
OT: to make “Williams” plural, add an “es.” Hence, Williamses.