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GAINESVILLE, Fla – Thursday night, former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines took the stage in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom sporting a black t-shirt that read ‘XX ≠ XY.’
The Grand Ballroom was walled off to create a closed environment between Gaines and an audience of roughly 100 students, alumni, former student-athletes, and locals. Police officers were stationed at each of the room’s three exits.
The topic of transgender athletes in women’s sports has been a topic of controversy in the past few years and Gaines has been one of the loudest voices speaking against it.
Gaines Speaks
Midway through Gaines’ senior season with the Wildcats, she looked at the top collegiate times in the women’s 200-yard freestyle. She found herself at third, California now Florida swimmer Isabel Ivey second and at first was a University of Pennsylvania swimmer that she had never heard of.
Lia Thomas.
Background on Thomas
Penn is not known for having a nationally contending swim program. However, going into the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, the Quakers had a chance to win their first individual women’s title.
Unlike the other swimmers, Lia Thomas was a transgender woman.
Thomas was recruited by UPenn as William and competed for the Quakers men’s team from fall 2017 to spring 2020. In fact, Thomas had success against Ivy League opponents, finishing second in the 500-yard, 1000-yard and 1650-yard freestyle in the 2019 conference championship.
The Ivy League cancelled athletics due to COVID-19 in 2020-21. Following the hiatus, Thomas returned to the pool as a transgender woman.
Lia in NCAAs
Gaines states that Thomas’ performance against women was disproportionate to Thomas’ performances against men.
Thomas never qualified for the NCAA Championships as a man, but qualified for three events in 2022 as a transgender woman.
In the 500-yard freestyle, Thomas went 4:33.24 to earn gold. Finishing second was current Florida, then Virginia swimmer Emma Weyant with a time of 4:34.99.
On March 22, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a proclamation that declared Weyant the “rightful winner” to the event. Gaines agrees with DeSantis’ statement.
Later in the meet, Thomas and Gaines took the block for the 200-yard free. Both swimmers raced to the wall, but they remarkably tied for fifth at 1:43.40.
At the podium, Gaines recalled that the NCAA official handed Thomas the official trophy. She had to return the trophy she used for the photo op. Gaines says that she came to a realization at this moment.
Additionally, Gaines claimed that the “overwhelming majority” of girls felt uncomfortable sharing the locker room with Thomas.
Gaines Tour in Gainesville
Gaines spoke at the University of Florida as part of her Speak Louder Campus Tour. The event was organized by the student-run Network of Enlightened Women, a group for conservative women at UF in conjunction with The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute.
As Gaines finished her roughly hour long speech, she explained the reasoning behind her tour.
During her tour, Gaines has been met with protest. In her opening remarks, she recalled a story of her alleged assault during her speech at San Francisco State University last April.
Other schools have had peaceful protests to counter Gaines message, but no such protests were present on Thursday at UF.
