{"id":845399,"date":"2023-12-01T11:13:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T16:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/?post_type=gap&p=845399"},"modified":"2025-02-21T12:40:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:40:41","slug":"riley-gaines","status":"publish","type":"gap","link":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/gap\/riley-gaines\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Gaines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riley Gaines is an American former competitive swimmer from Gallatin, Tennessee. In 2022, while swimming for the <\/span><\/i>University of Kentucky<\/span><\/i><\/a> in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship, Gaines tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who became the first out trans woman champion in the NCAA women’s division. Since then Gaines has lobbied against the inclusion of trans women in the women’s division of sports, been a frequent guest on right-wing media, <\/span><\/i>travels<\/span><\/i><\/a> nationwide for <\/span><\/i>panels<\/span><\/i><\/a> advocating against transgender people, and campaigned for anti-trans candidates for public office including<\/span><\/i> Rand Paul<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> Ron DeSantis<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Kim Reynolds, Daniel Cameron, and others.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014Appears in a video<\/a> on the federal government web site for the HHS’s Office of Women’s Health<\/a>\u00a0touting anti-transgender policies enacted by President Trump.<\/a>\u00a0The webpage<\/a>, titled \u201cProtecting Women and Children,\u201d\u00a0 employs Trump\u2019s narrow and scientifically baseless definition of sex and asserts that gender-affirming care is a form of child abuse. The department is promoting a rigid definition of sex that excludes transgender<\/a>\u00a0identities, falsely framing gender-affirming care as \u201cchemical and surgical mutilation\u201d and targeting trans inclusion in sports. In fact,\u00a0every major medical association and leading world health authority<\/a>\u00a0supports health care for transgender people and youth. The site section titled \u201cKeeping Men Out of Women\u2019s Sports,\u201d repeats\u00a0far-right rhetoric used to justify bans on transgender women athletes.<\/a> In the video\u00a0Gaines says, “I am so grateful to see President Trump’s quick and decisive action to uphold his campaign promised to protect women athletes.” Gaines has not yet spoken out against President Trump being found liable for sexual abuse<\/a> or for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.<\/a>, facing\u00a0<\/span>credible allegations<\/a> of sexual assault and misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>At a speech at University of Wyoming<\/span><\/a>, she “opened with allegations of an assault at San Francisco State University, made specific note that she was attacked by \u2018men in dresses with beards\u2019 and that she was apparently held ransom along with police officers until she gave the protestors $10.00 each.\u201d Police say her claims are <\/span>unfounded<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Said<\/span><\/a> \u201cI believe every single person is entitled\u2014actually\u2014I encourage every single person to play sports,\u201d before suggesting that there is no category of competition that would permit transgender athletes: \u201cI don\u2019t think a third category (for transgender athletes) would suffice. Because at the end of the day, you would still very much have males competing against females.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Sued<\/span><\/a> the NCC with more than a dozen college athletes challenging the organization’s transgender eligibility policies, claiming they violate Title IX rights by adversely affecting female athletes. The lawsuit <\/span>demands<\/span><\/a> the NCAA revoke all awards given to trans athletes in women\u2019s competitions and reassign them to their female contenders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Declared<\/span><\/a> a \u201cReal Women\u2019s Day\u201d holiday on Oct. 10, 2023, chosen for the Roman numerals that denote the day: XX.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Touring<\/span><\/a> the country with her \u201cTake Back Title IX\u201d tour aimed at keeping transgender women out of women\u2019s sports<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Held<\/span><\/a> a ceremony for the Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team after they forfeited a playoff game because they refused to compete against a transgender athlete.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Riley Gaines is the director of The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. The Leadership Institute receives funding from several Koch family foundations, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (promotes anti-LGBTQ initiatives, including support for studies and campaigns that oppose LGBTQ rights particularly in the context of education and public policy), <\/span>DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund<\/span><\/a> (opposes LGBTQ rights and funds various organizations that push anti-LGBTQ agendas), the National Christian Charitable Foundation (opposes LGBTQ rights, particularly marriage equality and transgender rights), among others. The Leadership Institute president is co-founder of Council for National Policy<\/a> (CNP), a secretive, Christian Right organization of funders and activists founded in 1981. <\/span>Work with Moms for Liberty<\/em>: <\/span>The Leadership Institute<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Moms for Liberty (M4L) <\/span><\/a>organized a School Board Activist Workshop in January 2022, and Leadership Institute facilitated three M4L School Board Activism and Campaign Trainings in February 2022. Leadership Institute was the largest sponsor for M4L’s national summit in July of 2022, which included Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson as speakers. Leadership Institute was also a lead sponsor for M4L’s 2023 national summit, and oversaw trainings for attendees on candidate vetting, grassroots lobbying, communications, running for office, strategic research, vote goals, and media. M4L co-founder Bridget Ziegler stepped down from her position as director in spring of 2021, and was subsequently hired by Leadership Institute to serve as the Vice President of the School Board Leadership Program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Launched<\/span><\/a> Project BOYcott<\/span><\/a> campaign to “celebrate” female athletes who refuse to compete against transgender women and girls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Repeatedly<\/span><\/a> and falsely claims that trans women pose a sexual and physical threat to cisgender women, both in and out of the environment of athletics. In fact \u201c<\/span>transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime,<\/span><\/a>\u201d according to a study by the Williams Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Encouraged<\/span><\/a> retaliation against libraries and library staff (including doxxing) that refused to allow speakers to misgender people, a violation of library policy. A bomb threat later forced evacuation of the library and an elementary school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Campaigned<\/span><\/a> for Kentucky anti-LGBTQ gubernatorial candidate<\/span> Daniel Cameron<\/span><\/a> who has<\/span> focused<\/span><\/a> his on targeting transgender youth, who make up an estimated 0.7% of Kentucky’s 13\u201317 population. Says Gaines in an ad: \u201cThis is Lia Thomas. He\u2019s a male that claims he\u2019s a woman \u2026 And this is trans-rights activist Andy Beshear. He vetoed legislation that would ban men from competing in women\u2019s sports. And this is Daniel Cameron. He\u2019s running against Andy Beshear. He\u2019ll protect women and our sports.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014With her viral post (and those of Chaya Raichik<\/a> who runs the far-right anti-LGBTQ hate account LibsofTikTok<\/a>), fueled<\/span> harassment<\/span><\/a> of and<\/span> violent threats<\/span><\/a> against a<\/span> transgender high school student in Missouri<\/span><\/a> who was elected homecoming queen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Encouraged harassment of two high school athletes<\/span><\/a>, both minors, who said they dropped out of competition out of fear for their safety. Riley misgendered them and accused them of cheating simply for competing with other women athletes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Compared<\/span><\/a> the gender transition of transgender TikTok creator Dylan Mulvaney to blackface: \u201cThis is a man, a man with a fetish, who is gleefully putting together all the stereotypes of women.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Lied<\/span><\/a> about Pride merchandise at Target stores and attempted to associate it with satanism saying, \u201cIf you look at the children’s clothes in Target, they are targeting children. It’s sick, it’s perverse, it’s disgusting. And if you look up this person who they partnered with to do all the illustrations, this person is an open satanist. It’s criminal what they’re doing.\u201d<\/span> In fact,<\/span><\/a> there was nothing criminal about the merchandise and none of the items bore satanic imagery, but images of UFOs and planets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Appeared<\/a> on Fox News 29 times, a total time of more than two hours and 38 minutes, between April 2022 and the end of May 2023. She has recently expanded on her platform spreading misinformation about transgender people in sports to include falsehoods about transgender people’s existence and safety in society, according to Media Matters.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Participated in<\/span><\/a> a \u201cPanel on Transgenderism\u201d at the annual CPAC conference. Gaines alleged that trans inclusion in women’s athletics is just one part of a widespread<\/span> attempt<\/span><\/a> to \u201ceradicate women as a whole,\u201d a conspiracy theory. As noted in the GLAAD <\/span>Guide to Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate and Disinformation<\/span><\/a>, the current usage of \u201ctransgenderism\u201d as a term arises from anti-trans extremists and is crafted to delegitimize and dehumanize trans people by implying that being trans is an ideology rather than an identity. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":845400,"template":"","categories":[138754,139170,139167,138409],"tags":[120238,122796],"region":[138565,138607],"hashtag":[138636,138632,139492,138633],"class_list":{"0":"post-845399","1":"gap","2":"type-gap","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"category-gaps","7":"category-hate-extremism","8":"category-legislation","9":"category-transgender","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-sports","12":"region-national","13":"region-tennessee","14":"hashtag-anti-transgender","15":"hashtag-politics","16":"hashtag-sports","17":"hashtag-transphobia"},"aioseo_notices":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t