CV NEWS FEED // Retired collegiate swimmer and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines testified Tuesday afternoon at a House subcommittee hearing titled “The Importance of Protecting Female Athletics and Title IX.”
“I’m here today to protect women’s sports and urge you to protect women’s sports and uphold the original intent of Title IX,” the former University of Kentucky star said in her opening remarks. The House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services held the hearing.
Gaines discussed her story of being forced to compete against Lia (born William) Thomas, a man who says he is a woman.
Gaines said she and other female swimmers “watched as this male swam to a women’s national title, beating out the most impressive and accomplished female swimmers in the nation, including Olympians and American record-holders.”
“In addition to losing out on opportunities to Thomas, we also had to share a locker room and change in front of the six-foot-four, fully intact naked male,” she added.
Neither she nor the other swimmers were “forwarned of this arrangement,” she said. “We were not asked for our consent and we did not give our consent.”
“Unfortunately, Thomas was not a one-off,” she emphasized. “Across the country and in various sports, males are entering women’s athletic competitions, being given spots on women’s teams, and being granted entry to our locker rooms.”
“Common-sense Americans know intuitively that this is not fair to women,” she said.
Gaines elaborated that science “supports this instinct” with studies showing that “males have a 10% to 12% athletic advantage over females.”
Fundamentally Unfair
“Quite simply men do not belong in women’s sports,” said Subcommittee Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-MI, in her opening statement:
The simple fact [that] this needs to be said out loud is really kind of a sad reflection of where the other side is on this issue. There should be no debate about this. However, we are here today because the Biden administration is choosing to ignore the truth, and, I might add, the science.
McClain stressed that allowing men to compete in women’s sports is “fundamentally unfair” and “unsafe.” She cited scientific evidence that shows men and women have “unchangeable physiological differences.”
“That is what Title IX was designed to protect,” she said:
By allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports, we are placing our daughters in danger every time they step onto the field. In a fraudulent effort to be inclusive, the Biden administration is sacrificing equality. Instead of defending the hard-fought protections that Title IX secures … the Biden administration has proposed two rules that will drastically alter Title IX.
The congresswoman explained that the pending rule change “redefines sex to include gender identity and expand[s] Title IX protection to biological males.”
“Protections that were created and implemented for women and girls,” she stressed.
Gaines on Title IX
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-KY, asked Gaines: “Has Title IX had a positive impact on your access to athletic and academic opportunities?”
“Of course it has,” she answered:
I would not have been able to achieve what I achieved without Title IX, without the women’s sporting category. It’s developed me into the leader that I am today. It’s given me the confidence to stand before this committee, and the security to stand firm in my belief that men should not be playing in women’s sports.
McClain asked Gaines: “Why is it patently unfair to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports?”
“Look at what’s happened,” Gaines replied. “We don’t see females entering into men’s sports and dominating. This is only happening one way. That way being males entering into women’s sports.”
She then explained the inherent scientific differences between male and female bodies. “You look at things like wingspan or height or lung capacity or the size of the heart that does not change with hormone suppression,” she said.
“So, you’re actually telling us to follow the science?” McClain asked.
“That is true,” replied Gaines.
Not Just Sports
In answering another question from McClain, Gaines explained that the Biden administration’s attempted “Title IX rewrite” is “a lot broader than just sports.”
“Sororities are a part of it,” she said. Specifically, Gaines referred to a case initiated by six members of the University of Wyoming’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, who sued the sorority after a man who says he is a woman was allowed to join.
The concerned sorority sisters “just refiled their lawsuit this morning,” Gaines said:
What they’re going through is… perverse. Allowing a male into their sorority house, watching them as they shower and undress… Walking around erect in their sorority house, asking them uncomfortable questions about what undergarments they wear, about their breasts. That’s violating for any young girl, especially a college-age young girl who was promised “sisterhood.”
“These girls got the brother they never wanted,” she said.
