Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines told a large crowd in Maine that allowing transgender women to compete in girls’ and women’s sports is unfair, unsafe and a betrayal of the female athletes those categories were created to protect.
Speaking at Calvary Chapel Greater Portland during a rally for the Protect Girls Sports Maine ballot initiative, Gaines mixed humor with pointed criticism of college sports officials, campus leaders and state politicians as she recounted how competing against Lia Thomas, whom she repeatedly identified as “Will Thomas,” a male, turned her into a prominent activist.
“Oh my gosh. I hope you guys feel at least a little bit silly for giving someone a standing ovation for merely saying that men and women are different,” Gaines opened, adding, “That’s kind of like the whole schtick.”
Gaines, a 12-time All-American and five-time Southeastern Conference champion, described working for years to reach the top of women’s collegiate swimming before learning that a previously little-known swimmer, Thomas, was suddenly dominating the national rankings.
She said she and other athletes initially knew nothing about Thomas until “an article came out disclosing very briefly that Leah Thomas is actually Will Thomas,” a swimmer who had previously competed on the University of Pennsylvania men’s team.
Gaines told the audience she felt “relieved” at first, believing the NCAA would recognize that “this was not a lateral movement.” Instead, she said, the governing body declared Thomas’ participation in the women’s category “non-negotiable.”
At the NCAA championships, Gaines said she and Thomas tied in the 200-yard freestyle, only to be told by an official that the single fifth-place trophy would go to Thomas.
“The NCAA official looks at both him and me, him towering over me. He says, great job, you two, but you tied. We don’t account for ties, we only have one trophy. So we’re gonna give the trophy to him. Sorry, Riley, you just don’t get it,” she recalled. “You can pose with this one, but you have to give yours back.”
“That was the moment when for me,” she said, she decided she could no longer wait for someone else to act. “How in the world can you expect someone to stand up for you if you’re not even willing to stand up for you?”
Gaines also described sharing a locker room with Thomas, calling the experience “total violation and humiliation.”
“You hear a man’s voice in the locker room, like it’s instinctual, like you flick your head around,” she said. “And there’s a man taking off his one-piece swimsuit, fully naked, fully intact, fully exposing himself, inches away from where we were simultaneously fully undressed as women.”
She said she and other swimmers were pressured to accept the arrangement.
“My university sat me down, a 21-year-old senior in college at the time, and they told me how to use she, her pronouns in a sentence,” she said. “We had to participate in restorative justice circles where we learned about how we were the oppressors. He was the victim.”
Gaines criticized what she called the misuse of words like “inclusion” in sports policy debates.
“Sports in their true nature are inclusive,” she said. “But you know what’s not inclusive? Competition. And it’s true in nature. Why? Its definition is exclusive because you have a winner. Exclusion is not a bad thing. Hear me when I say that. There are places where exclusion is actually necessary.”
She urged the audience to avoid terms such as “biological woman,” arguing that “male and female will suffice.”
“It implies that there’s some form of an unbiological alternative to being a woman, which there’s not,” Gaines said. “Use clear language for everyone’s sake. That’s the most kind and loving and compassionate thing you can do.”
Turning to Maine politics, Gaines criticized state leaders over their interpretation of federal Title IX protections. She quoted a statement from the state attorney general saying “nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls and women’s sports teams,” and then told the crowd, “That is exactly what Title IX was created to prevent.”
Gaines also referred to the February encounter between Gov. Janet Mills and U.S. President Donald Trump, who she said once hosted her at the White House to highlight a policy on women’s sports.
“It wasn’t too long ago where I was sitting next to President Trump at the White House as he signed an executive order barring men from participating in women’s sports within any educational program that receives federal funds,” she said. Photos from that day, she said, showed Trump “surrounded by a sea of young girls.”
“So when I hear someone like Governor Mills, you know, I think what she (must have) thought was like this mic drop moment where she tells President Trump I’ll see you in court,” Gaines said. “What she thinks she’s doing is pushing back against President Trump, giving President Trump a middle finger, if you will. That’s not at all what she’s doing. You know what she’s doing is she’s giving a middle finger to every single one of those little girls who was there that day.”
Gaines delivered some of her sharpest criticism while discussing what she described as Maine officials’ unwillingness to defend women’s sports and protect female athletes who speak out. Pointing to recent legal and policy battles over gender identity rules in athletics, Gaines argued that state leaders have “abandoned common sense” and refuse to stand for fairness.
In that context, she told the audience, “Your Attorney General Sucks,” a line that drew loud applause and highlighted her broader message that state authorities are failing to enforce protections she believes are essential for women and girls.
Gaines repeatedly framed her message as supportive of women rather than hostile to transgender people.
“This message that I’m here to share, that we’re here to share, that Maine Girl Dads has done a fantastic job of rallying behind. It’s not one that’s anti-anything. I hate that verbiage,” she said. “This message, it’s not anti-anything. It’s pro-something. It’s pro-reality. It’s pro-science, whatever the fall of science. It is pro-safety, pro-equal opportunity, pro-privacy. It’s pro-woman. And if being pro-woman is anti-trans, then so be it.”
She urged voters to support the Protect Girls Sports Maine referendum, which organizers say would require school sports to be separated by sex.
“When you get to the ballot box (next) November, you will likely see a question that says something to the effect of, do you believe that sports should be separated on the basis of sex?” Gaines said.
She then walked the crowd through what she called a simple test:
“Do you believe that women are worthy of safety on the field, on the court, or in their everyday lives, for that matter? … Do you believe that women are worthy of calling themselves champions? … Do you believe that women are worthy of privacy in areas of undressing?”
“Then the answer is really, really simple,” she said. “Then you support this referendum, this initiative, this effort that all of you in this room have already rallied behind.”
Gaines closed by urging both young people and older supporters to get involved — whether by organizing on campus, volunteering or giving financially.
“There is no better investment than your children or your grandchildren’s future,” she said. “There’s no better investment.”
Leland Streiff of Maine Girl Dads told the crowd that he officially filed a citizens’ initiative called Protect Girls Sports, a statewide effort that requires 68,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
At the event, Strife told the crowd, “we’ve officially captured over 68,000 signatures” and said organizers “want to hit 100,000 by early December to prove to Maine and to our Secretary of State that we’re going to put an end to sex-based discrimination and that we are going to protect our girls, their sports, and their private spaces.”
To learn more about this effort, visit mainegirldads.com.
