Riley Gaines detailed how she and her female teammates were forced to share a locker room with male swimmer Lia Thomas in congressional testimony on Wednesday.
Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer for the University of Kentucky, competed against Thomas, a biological male, on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team, tying for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle. Thomas beat out his female competitors by 1.75 seconds during the NCAA championships in March 2022. Thomas, who was ranked #462 among men, quickly rose to #1 in the women’s category. (RELATED: Gender Clinic Whistleblower Says Kids Got Hormones Days After Coming Out As ‘Nonbinary’)
“In addition to being forced to give up our award and our titles and our opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to share a locker room with Thomas, a 6’4” 22-year-old male equipped with and exposing male genitalia,” Gaines said. “Let me be clear about this, we were not forewarned we would be sharing a locker room. No one asked for our consent, and we did not give our consent.”
Powerful testimony from @Riley_Gaines_: The NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to share a locker room…. with a 6’4″ 22 year old male equipped with & exposing male genitalia.
Let me be clear about this… no one asked for our consent and we did not give our consent… pic.twitter.com/ofeTO74Au1
— Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) June 21, 2023
Gaines made the comments during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on “defending the civil rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.”
“And I’ll set the scene — a locker room is not a place of modesty. You’re undressing, you’re fully exposed, and we were forced to take off our swimsuits in front of a man who was doing the exact same thing.”
A University of Pittsburgh speaking event in March sparked massive protests as Gaines brought her campaign against men in women’s sports to the campus. At one point, a heckler interjected during Gaines’s testimony on how she was exposed to Thomas’s male genitalia in the locker room asking, “why were you looking?” Gaines says she was “ambushed and physically hit” while on campus for the event, and a video shows an angry mob of transgender activists chasing her out of a building.
A study found that biological males have an advantage over women in strength and stamina, even with testosterone suppression.