Ex-college swimmer Riley Gaines slams Dem congresswoman who called her a bigot for opposing trans athletes in women’s sports at congressional hearing

Ex-college swimmer Riley Gaines branded “squad” Dem a “misogynist” after accusing her of engaging in “transphobic bigotry” during a heated exchange at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Gaines, former Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell and Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation attended a hearing at the House Subcommittee for Healthcare and Financial Services on the impact of trans women's inclusion in women's sports.

It comes as the Biden administration's education department pushes to change Title IX to support the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports.

During the hearing, Democratic Congresswoman Summer Lee told the committee that their presence meant that “we will likely be forced to listen to transphobic bigotry.”

Former Kentucky swimmer Gaines hit back: “If my testimony makes me transphobic…your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.”

Ex-Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was the first to testify before the subcommittee on Tuesday

Summer Lee (Dem-Pa.) advocated for the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports

Lee quickly moved to retract Gaine's comments for “engaging personalities” rather than the substance of the debate.

“I want to have the lady's words recorded.” Lee turned to the chair.

After a brief pause in the proceedings, Lee withdrew her point of order.

Gaines later told the hearing that she believes there are too many trans athletes competing in women's sports and that “Americans intuitively know this isn't fair.”

“There are numerous documented examples of men competing not only in women's swimming, but also in women's track and field, cross country, basketball, volleyball, hockey and other sports at all levels of competition,” Gaines said in her prepared statement . provided to the media.

“At the high school level, male athletes' participation on women's teams is perhaps one of the most under-reported stories in the country.”

“Science supports that instinct,” she continued. 'Research consistently shows that male bodies have approximately a 10% athletic advantage over female bodies.

“This gap is visible in almost every sport and at every level of competition. Yes, hormone therapy can reduce this gap. But it cannot close it, and studies consistently show that surgery and testosterone suppression do not return male athletic performance to normal female levels.”

Penn's Lia Thomas and Kentucky's Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for fifth in the 200 freestyle

(From left) Riley Gaines, Sarah Parshall Perry, Kim Russell and Fatima Goss Graves are sworn in

Subcommittee Chairwoman Lisa McClain (Republican-Michigan) speaks during Tuesday's hearing

Gaines has consistently campaigned against trans women's participation in sports since 2022, when she finished in fifth place in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who previously competed against men.

On Tuesday, Gaines claimed that Thomas was only “mediocre” before his transition.

“Take Thomas for example,” she said. “He was mediocre at best against the men who were ranked 400th and 500th nationally, and then went on to dominate all the women in the entire country (by size, I might add) in a matter of a year.”

On Tuesday, she argued that it poses a safety risk for transgender women to compete with other women.

“Of course, injuries can and do occur when women play against other women,” said Gaines, a member of the conservative Independent Women's Forum. 'But allowing men to play women's sports increases the likelihood and severity of such injuries.

“That's one reason why, for 50 years, federal Title IX regulations have allowed schools to offer separate teams for women and men if the sports are contact sports or involve competitive skills.”

Gaines specifically addressed the Department of Education's proposal to allow anyone who identifies as a woman to participate in women's sports.

“It is my sincere hope that members of this committee will take action to stop the Biden administration's illegal administrative rewrite of Title IX,” she concluded.

Former Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell said she believes the left's Title IX is in jeopardy

Sarah Parshall Perry testified in favor of banning trans athletes from women's sports

In dissent, Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women's Law Center, testified

Gaines, a Tennessee native, endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' US presidential bid in June and appeared as a witness later that month at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community.

During that testimony and again Tuesday, Gaines said she was traumatized by being forced to use the same locker room as Thomas: “In addition to being forced to give up our awards, titles and opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to to share a locker room with Thomas, a six-foot-tall 22-year-old man equipped with (and exposed) male genitalia.'

Russell, another member of the Independent Women's Forum, was removed as coach of the women's lacrosse team at Oberlin College in Ohio after speaking out against transgender athletes in female sports.

Russell claims she was moved to a paperwork position that prevented her from working directly with students as a result of her views on transgender athletes in women's sports.

“Oberlin College removed me from coaching women's lacrosse after I chose to tell my story publicly and refused to remain silent or back down on my belief that men – no matter how they identify themselves – should not compete in women's sporting events. Russell said in her prepared statement.

In offering a different view, Fatima Goss Graves, minority witness and CEO of the National Women's Law Center, spoke from her prepared statement Tuesday, saying Congress should “pursue policies that meaningfully increase gender equality and promotes honesty.'

“Anti-trans policies undermine the intentions of Title IX for at least three reasons,” she wrote in her prepared remarks.

“First, the policy that excludes trans girls and women from school sports programs threatens all women and girls who excel in athletics, and anyone who deviates from gender stereotypes, by encouraging challenges that burden women to prove that they are 'real' women and creating risks of intrusive and harmful sex verification practices.

“Black and brown women and girls who participate in school sports are at particularly high risk of harm from these policies, because Black and brown women are often seen as 'non-conforming' to white-centric norms of femininity.

“Second, this policy reinforces a false binary by assuming that those assigned male at birth are inevitably and inherently athletically superior, and those identified as female are inherently weaker and less athletic.

“This reductive narrative harms all women and girls. We see this demonstrated in the over-funding of men's sports programs and the chronic failure to invest in women's sports programs.

“Finally, trans exclusionary policies in school sports programs for women and girls undermine Title IX's intent to make athletic participation, with all its educational benefits, available to all students, free from sex discrimination. Denying trans women and girls access to women's and girls' sports denies them the opportunities to gain academic and social benefits, including a sense of community and belonging among their peers.”

Graves concluded by encouraging the Subcommittee to support the Biden Administration's proposed Title IX changes to support the inclusion of trans athletes.