Riley Gaines speaks at supporters at Independent Women’s Forum's "Our Bodies, Our Sports: We Won't Back Down" rally outside Phoenix City Hall on Jan. 11, 2024, in Phoenix. Photo: Megan Mendoza/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
It has been almost three years since anti-trans activist Riley Gaines tied for 5th place with a trans opponent in an NCAA swimming competition. Yet Gaines continues to allow what she has deemed this gross injustice to shape her entire life.
Gaines has used the non-situation to build a career in anti-trans activism. Her argument that trans women uniformly possess unfair physical advantages over cisgender women has evolved over the past two years to include broader anti-trans claims, including that trans women pose a threat to cis women’s safety. She has become a darling of conservative media, which has allowed her to spew hateful misinformation.
Her life story would be an absurd premise for a tragedy, but she’s always the main character.
And folks have had enough.
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Replies to Gaines’s most recent anti-trans post on X – which yet again brings up her fifth-place tie – are overwhelmingly riddled with people mocking her for her inability to move on, with many pointing out she didn’t even lose to the trans swimmer, Lia Thomas, and still placed behind four cisgender women in the race.
On October 1, Gaines angrily responded to Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz for saying his party is “pro-women” when it comes to reproductive rights. Gaines somehow made the comment about her, turned it into an issue about trans women in sports.
“Did Tim Walz REALLY just say they’re ‘pro-women’ ?????” Gaines wrote on X. “Then explain this to me like I’m 5.” Accompanying the post was a photo of Gaines and Thomas at the competition.
Did Tim Walz REALLY just say they're "pro-women" ?????
Responders ruthlessly made fun of Gaines both for refusing to move on from a school sports event and for failing to understand that Walz’s comment was about abortion rights. They also pointed out that four cis women also beat Thomas, negating Gaines’s arguments that trans women are at an advantage or that a trans woman stole anything from her.
"Like I'm 5." Your whole personality is finishing in 5th-place. You already are 5 🤝 https://t.co/E9qIQCrJpL
— Jason Kirk (read my novel) (@JasonKirk_fyi) October 2, 2024
If you insist: I know you love swimming and you're so good at it and it's frustrating when we don't win things but the Governor is thinking of women who might die in the hospital because of bad laws his opponent supports
Also, she wasn't beaten by a trans woman. They tied. She performed exactly as good as the person she's made a career of pretending has some insurmountable biologist advantage, who Incidentally, was also beaten by four other cıs women.
Riley Gains acts like she lost first place to a trans woman but she actually tied with a trans woman for 5th place behind 4 cis women. So she’s just a loser https://t.co/IYlF7MA5Xs
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