John Washington is a journalism senior and opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
In 2022, college swimmer Leah Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle, becoming the first transgender NCAA Division I national champion. Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth place with Thomas in another event at those championships, made headlines herself when she objected to sharing a locker room with Thomas. She has since parlayed that attention into a podcast deal, a budding career as a lobbyist, and now a national college tour.
On October 10, the tour stopped at Cal Poly, where Gaines headlined the Turning Point USA conference. She was speaking on how trans women should not be allowed to play sports with other women on her self-declared “Real Women’s Day.”
Like many fights we’ve seen in recent years, Gaines’ fight was completely manufactured. This is not a real problem. Trans women only make up a small percentage of participation in sports. According to Athlete Ally’s research director, only about 40 of the more than 500,000 total NCAA athletes are transgender. Additionally, NCAA rules regarding trans-athlete participation have been in place since 2010 and are updated from time to time in the name of fairness.
Politicians who have worked hard on this issue are simply anti-trans based. They will continue to pretend that they are fighting for their daughters’ rights. The fact is, they know that this fear-mongering will get them votes. Perhaps they themselves are beginning to believe it.
Mustang News reported that at a Turning Point USA meeting, Gaines said his activities were not “hateful” or “biased.”
It feels stupid to justify it by replying to comments like this, but those who don’t really know why she’s famous should know that this is a complete scandal .
It is completely rooted in hatred. She is cautious enough not to explicitly say she hates transgender people, but she is quick to call them harmful and dangerous. She also makes sure to distinguish trans women from “real women.”
It was only when she realized she could turn the lack of an NCAA title into a financial opportunity that she decided to take care of keeping trans women out of the sport.
Gaines’ initial complaints about locker room sharing gained enough attention that he moved on to his current job lobbying state legislators, appearing in political campaign ads, speaking at Trump rallies, and leading a lawsuit against the NCAA. did.
The focus is no longer on the locker room. It’s about trans athletes in general.
One of the signatories to the lawsuit was San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser, who was upset after recently learning that her teammate of more than two years, Blair Fleming, is a trans woman. By joining the lawsuit, she announced Fleming’s transgender identity to the world and exposed her to national scrutiny.
Since then, four teams have forfeited games against San Jose State this season because of Fleming’s presence. According to the Cowboy State Daily, the University of Wyoming forfeited the game because the state Legislature applied pressure over a team-wide decision to force the game.
The event, organized by the University of California’s Turning Point USA chapter, echoed the uproar it caused last December when protests erupted outside an event it hosted with anti-transgender speakers Chris Elston and Chloe Cole. It seems that it was intended to be reproduced. However, this year, one club member said: There were protests at the other two events, so I was a little disappointed. ”
I think some people in this group are very curious. But a vocal majority wants to provoke and demonize. They want to attack a group and see what kind of reaction they get. In fact, they don’t really care about the girls’ safety. Most of them have probably never met a transgender person.
For most transgender people, adolescence is incredibly isolating. Playing sports is one of the few social outlets available to children and teens who are already part of such marginalized groups.
As people like Riley Gaines continue to try to ban transgender people from sports, the options for transgender people seeking community and achievement will continue to shrink. And for a population whose self-harm and suicide rates are already much higher than the general population, the harm inflicted on transgender people would be, in my eyes, intolerable.
Transgender people participate in sports.
