Riley Gaines Unveils 50-State Strategy After Another Violent Run-In With ‘Trans’ Activists

CV NEWS FEED // All-American collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines has embarked on a campaign to protect women’s sports in all 50 states after witnessing violence by pro- “trans” protesters.

Gaines swam for the University of Kentucky from 2019 to 2022. She won numerous accolades and quickly established herself as one of the top female swimmers in the country. In the 2022 NCAA Finals, she famously competed against Lia Thomas, a male swimmer who calls himself a woman. 

On Monday, Gaines and fellow retired swimmer-turned-activist Paula Scanlan joined Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his signing of SB 15, nicknamed the “Save Women’s Sports Act.”

The new state law requires “higher education students who compete in intercollegiate athletic competitions to compete based on biological sex,” therefore preventing a male like Thomas from competing against women in Texas. 

However, as The Daily Wire reported, Abbott’s signing ceremony was met with violence and heightened hostility from the other side. 

“Transgender activists yelled profanities at children, threw bottles, and spat on some of the people gathered in support of girls-only spaces and sports,” Gaines said. “To no one’s surprise we were met with protesters. And to no one’s surprise, these protesters were some of the most vengeful, hateful, soulless individuals.”

The “trans” activists, who women’s rights activist Michelle Evans of Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) characterized as “rabid,” vulgarly harassed girls as young as five years old.

Scanlan pointed out the hypocrisy of the “trans” activists who claimed to be standing for “human rights.” 

“Are women’s rights not human rights?” she asked.

College volleyball star Macy Petty, who was in Austin with Gaines and Scanlan, responded to the protesters on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying she and her fellow athlete-activists are “simply female athletes asking for our own spaces.”

Gaines pointed out that while “pockets” of protesters are attempting to derail her efforts to protect women’s sports, “they can’t do it with truth, they can’t do it with science, they can’t do it with logic, or reasoning, or, quite frankly, common sense.”

“And that’s why they resort to name-calling,” she said. “That’s why they resort to spitting.”

Gaines called the hostile reception “almost encouraging.”

“We are doing the right thing,” she said. “And this treatment, while it’s unfortunate, it encourages me to continue on and to continue pushing this in all 50 states.”

Gaines is no stranger to violent run-ins with radical activists. In April, she was attacked and held hostage in a classroom for several hours by a crowd of pro-“trans” activists following a speaking engagement at San Francisco State University (SFSU).

She recounted this experience, as well as her time competing against Thomas, in a LOOPcast interview with CatholicVote’s Tom Pogasic.

In addition to Texas, the neighboring state of Oklahoma is beginning to adopt some of the policies that Gaines and her fellow athlete-activists advocate. 

As CatholicVote reported last week:

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order on Tuesday directing state agencies to adopt the policies outlined in “The Women’s Bill of Rights” sponsored by the Independent Women’s Forum. 

The executive order will obligate state agencies to operate under traditional, scientific definitions of sexuality, rejecting ideological “transgender” identification.

Upon issuing the order, Stitt declared

I am taking decisive executive action to ensure the true definition of the word woman, meaning a biological woman, is what guides the state as we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the safety, dignity, and sanctity of women across Oklahoma.