April 3, 2024 • 9 mins
Riley Gaines, Director of The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. She will be speaking at UC Berkeley on April 4, 2024 at 6:30pm as part of her Reclaim Feminism Campus Tour. It’s open to the public.
You can register by going to: rileygainescenter.org/events
The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute has been created to advocate for girls, women, and parents at a time when they are under attack: stripped of opportunities to fairly compete in sports; denied access to sex-based scholarships and academic opportunities; put in physical danger on athletic courts and fields; and exposed to bodily harm and humiliation in locker rooms and private areas.
Riley joins Armstrong & Getty to talk about the absolute Gender Bending Madness taking place around women's sports.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've also got this opinion piece in the New York Times.
The problem with saying sex assigned at birth, that is,
I think unintentionally hilarious. A lot of this stuff is
hilarious until you consider how far it's gone to wit.
What a pleasure this is to talk to Riley Gaines in.
Unless you were a college swimmer, you probably didn't know
(00:20):
her name or a fan of college swimming until fairly recently.
But Riley has been crusading bravely, and I won't put
words in her mouth but for the simple proposition that
women's sports are for women and women's private spaces are
for women period. Riley is the director of the Riley
gains Center at the Leadership Institute and joins us.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Now, Riley, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I am doing great, and let me tell you you
are always allowed to put those words in my mouth,
because that is exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, excellent. We are big fans of yours and admire
your courage very much. For folks not familiar with this,
before we get to the basics of what you're espousing,
how tough has it been for you personally to stand
up and say women's sports are for women?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You know what, when I first took that initial public
fand after of course competing at the national Championships against
Leah Thomas, who's formerly Will Thomas, who swam three years
on the men's team at you Penn before deciding to
switch to the women's team. After seeing all of that firsthand,
after going through sensitivity training and social justice circles and
(01:28):
all the different things, I was terrified. But I could
not have been more naive to how easy it really
is to say something so simple. Again, all I'm saying
is that there are two sexes. You can't change your sex,
and each sex is deserving an equal opportunity, privacy and safety.
(01:48):
It's wild that that we live in a time where
that now requires bravery to say that, But it's easy
saying it for me.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Now it's a hill. I'm willing time.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So when you how many times did you swim against
Leah Thomas, the most famous trends athlete too, that once.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Against him at that one national championships. Okay, as I
mentioned competed.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
What was what was it like in the pool of
the crowd that day? I mean, were was everybody just
like ignoring the elephant in the room or were people
talking about it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It was weird going into the meet, almost ashamedly, I
felt intrigued. I had a lot of questions myself and
my teammates that that we wanted answered, right, like what
is the locker room going to look like?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Is he as tall as he seems on Instagram compared
to his teammates. But upon arriving to that meet and
of course having these questions answered, like I said, I
felt ashamed for feeling intrigued, and those feelings of intriguement
and almost like this, this big circus were we were
a part of those feelings shifted the heartbreak. I mean,
(02:56):
I felt like competing against them. I was going into
the race with my hands tied behind my back.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, you don't have anything to apologize for, I mean,
for gonna sake. You were a young college woman, and
I don't blame you for thinking, Wow, what the hell
is going to happen? But you were forced to share
the locker room, or at least Leah Thomas's teammates were
for a very long time with a six foot four
inch man, fully intact genitals on display, and you were
(03:23):
being required to look at that human and say, that's
a woman.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Not only that, but when we objected to this, we
were told we were the problem.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Right. We were told that we were.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The ones who should oologize and if we didn't see
this as a woman, then ultimately it was us who
are who are the biggest, and we should face the repercussions.
Thomas's teammates who objected to this, Granted they keep in mind,
yes I a dressed with him and that at that
national championship, but his teammates did eighteen times every single week.
(03:56):
And when they objected to this and sit an email
to their administration, you pan, I swear to you I
have a screenshot of the response.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
You' penn responded back with if you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Feel uncomfortable seeing managing to tell you, here are some
counseling resources that you speak in an attempt to re
educate yourselves.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Wow, how did that happen a couple of years after
Me Too? Where if a guy asked a girl out
on a date at work, you were Harvey Weinstein.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
That's so crazy, I know it.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And now these same people who advocated for the.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Me Too movement, who claimed to champion and pride themselves
on championing women's rights it's those same people who are
spearheading this movement to really dismantle our rights as.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Women, well as the father of a couple of daughters
and a youth sports coach who coached girls. I remember
in boys. I remember remarking on the show years and
years ago, as I was head coach for a boys
soccer team and assisting with my daughter's soccer team, the
speed and violence of the boys at the same age
was shocking compared to the girls. If the girls exit
(05:00):
deadly knocked each other down, they would say, oh my god,
I'm sorry and pick up their opponent off the turf. Meanwhile,
the guys are bleeding from the head and covered with
mud and loving it. The idea that oh, no, no,
now that male says she's a female is the sort
of absurdity Voltaire talked about when he said, those who
(05:20):
can make us believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
But anyway, so Riley Gaines, you've got your Riley gain
Center at the Leadership Institute. What are the main things
you're trying to accomplish? What are the basic principles?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
The main thing we're trying to accomplish through the center
is it's a training program to help train and develop
and equip and empower leaders, whether that's leaders at the
national level, the community level of course, within school boards,
college teams, college athletes, whatever it might be. We need
more leaders. I believe that's why our suffering. I have
(05:59):
also been and speaking on several different college campuses through
the Center.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Which has been a big push of mine.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
To really help engage the youth people who are my age,
you know, being a recent college graduate myself, I understand.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I understand how how hard it is.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
You're essentially equated to a criminal if you say you're
a conservative on college cases.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Not that this issue.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Should be part of it or should fall along party
lines in the way that ultimately it has, at least
in terms of how our elected officials are responding and
how the media portrays this issue.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
But we need more truth speakers, truth.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Speakers, So that's what speaking on these college campuses, that's
the goal there.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Riley Gaines is going to be speaking at You See
Berkeley not far from the Radio Ranch tomorrow, that's April
the fourth, at six point thirty, as part of her
Reclaim Feminism campus tour. Was it you See Berkeley that
you ran into like violent opposition or like last year
was it?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, you're exactly right, almost exactly a year ago. It
was at San Francisco State University. I was met with vitriol,
I was met with violence, I was met with, of course, hatefulness.
And it's so comical, like you, like you mentioned in
the intro here, it would be comical. This is the
(07:26):
same crowd who claims to be tall and who claims
to be inclusive and welcoming and accepting. But that is
not what I faced at San Francisco, and oftentimes not
what I faced around the country. This is the least
tolerant group you could possibly imagine. But nonetheless, this is
who needs to hear the message. It's no good preaching
to the choir all the time. So I'm excited to
(07:47):
be in the Bay Area. I'm excited to be at
u C. Berkeley, and I'm I'm now, given my experience
last year in San Francisco, I am more than prepared
for what could possibly and most certainly probably will you.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Got the yeah, probably, will you got the proper security?
I mean, so you're you're prepared for it to be ugly?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Possibly, Yes, sir, Unfortunately that's the way it has to go.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, probably actual guys, like big guys with penises that
are going to protect you. Oh that kind of guy,
that kind of guy. That's the kind of guy I'm
talking about you.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And if anybody who's working your favorite one guy now
Riley is a good and decent and reasonable person. I
Joe Getty, on the other hand, have fully empowered anybody
working security for Riley's event to whoop as much ass
as you need to to keep her one hundred percent safety.
These people are lunatics. Riley. The point you made about,
(08:43):
you know, welcomeness and inclusion, that is such a lie.
It's like the whole diversity thing that doesn't mean diversity,
that means the people I want. The minute it's the
people I don't want. Suddenly diversity isn't important at all,
or welcomness or inclusion or whatever the hell else. So
we are going to have a link at Armstrong in
(09:03):
getty dot com so folks can access the Riley Gains Center,
particularly parents of young women, and not just athletes either.
I mean, because y'all are talking about not only sports
and locker rooms, but women's faces, women's prisons, and bathrooms
and that sort of thing as well.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Right, of course, of course we are.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
You're exactly right in saying an extends far beyond just
women's sports.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Riley Gaines, you're a hero of ours. We appreciate your
time and your efforts very much. Keep up the good
fight and let us know how we can help. We
mean that seriously, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Well, I thank you guys so much and appreciate you
for what you do.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
So thank you Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Andy
I've also got this opinion piece in the New York Times.
The problem with saying sex assigned at birth, that is,
I think unintentionally hilarious. A lot of this stuff is
hilarious until you consider how far it's gone to wit.
What a pleasure this is to talk to Riley Gaines in.
Unless you were a college swimmer, you probably didn't know
(00:20):
her name or a fan of college swimming until fairly recently.
But Riley has been crusading bravely, and I won't put
words in her mouth but for the simple proposition that
women's sports are for women and women's private spaces are
for women period. Riley is the director of the Riley
gains Center at the Leadership Institute and joins us.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Now, Riley, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I am doing great, and let me tell you you
are always allowed to put those words in my mouth,
because that is exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, excellent. We are big fans of yours and admire
your courage very much. For folks not familiar with this,
before we get to the basics of what you're espousing,
how tough has it been for you personally to stand
up and say women's sports are for women?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You know what, when I first took that initial public
fand after of course competing at the national Championships against
Leah Thomas, who's formerly Will Thomas, who swam three years
on the men's team at you Penn before deciding to
switch to the women's team. After seeing all of that firsthand,
after going through sensitivity training and social justice circles and
(01:28):
all the different things, I was terrified. But I could
not have been more naive to how easy it really
is to say something so simple. Again, all I'm saying
is that there are two sexes. You can't change your sex,
and each sex is deserving an equal opportunity, privacy and safety.
(01:48):
It's wild that that we live in a time where
that now requires bravery to say that, But it's easy
saying it for me.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Now it's a hill. I'm willing time.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So when you how many times did you swim against
Leah Thomas, the most famous trends athlete too, that once.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Against him at that one national championships. Okay, as I
mentioned competed.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
What was what was it like in the pool of
the crowd that day? I mean, were was everybody just
like ignoring the elephant in the room or were people
talking about it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It was weird going into the meet, almost ashamedly, I
felt intrigued. I had a lot of questions myself and
my teammates that that we wanted answered, right, like what
is the locker room going to look like?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Is he as tall as he seems on Instagram compared
to his teammates. But upon arriving to that meet and
of course having these questions answered, like I said, I
felt ashamed for feeling intrigued, and those feelings of intriguement
and almost like this, this big circus were we were
a part of those feelings shifted the heartbreak. I mean,
(02:56):
I felt like competing against them. I was going into
the race with my hands tied behind my back.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, you don't have anything to apologize for, I mean,
for gonna sake. You were a young college woman, and
I don't blame you for thinking, Wow, what the hell
is going to happen? But you were forced to share
the locker room, or at least Leah Thomas's teammates were
for a very long time with a six foot four
inch man, fully intact genitals on display, and you were
(03:23):
being required to look at that human and say, that's
a woman.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Not only that, but when we objected to this, we
were told we were the problem.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Right. We were told that we were.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The ones who should oologize and if we didn't see
this as a woman, then ultimately it was us who
are who are the biggest, and we should face the repercussions.
Thomas's teammates who objected to this, Granted they keep in mind,
yes I a dressed with him and that at that
national championship, but his teammates did eighteen times every single week.
(03:56):
And when they objected to this and sit an email
to their administration, you pan, I swear to you I
have a screenshot of the response.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
You' penn responded back with if you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Feel uncomfortable seeing managing to tell you, here are some
counseling resources that you speak in an attempt to re
educate yourselves.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Wow, how did that happen a couple of years after
Me Too? Where if a guy asked a girl out
on a date at work, you were Harvey Weinstein.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
That's so crazy, I know it.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And now these same people who advocated for the.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Me Too movement, who claimed to champion and pride themselves
on championing women's rights it's those same people who are
spearheading this movement to really dismantle our rights as.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Women, well as the father of a couple of daughters
and a youth sports coach who coached girls. I remember
in boys. I remember remarking on the show years and
years ago, as I was head coach for a boys
soccer team and assisting with my daughter's soccer team, the
speed and violence of the boys at the same age
was shocking compared to the girls. If the girls exit
(05:00):
deadly knocked each other down, they would say, oh my god,
I'm sorry and pick up their opponent off the turf. Meanwhile,
the guys are bleeding from the head and covered with
mud and loving it. The idea that oh, no, no,
now that male says she's a female is the sort
of absurdity Voltaire talked about when he said, those who
(05:20):
can make us believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
But anyway, so Riley Gaines, you've got your Riley gain
Center at the Leadership Institute. What are the main things
you're trying to accomplish? What are the basic principles?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
The main thing we're trying to accomplish through the center
is it's a training program to help train and develop
and equip and empower leaders, whether that's leaders at the
national level, the community level of course, within school boards,
college teams, college athletes, whatever it might be. We need
more leaders. I believe that's why our suffering. I have
(05:59):
also been and speaking on several different college campuses through
the Center.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Which has been a big push of mine.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
To really help engage the youth people who are my age,
you know, being a recent college graduate myself, I understand.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I understand how how hard it is.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
You're essentially equated to a criminal if you say you're
a conservative on college cases.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Not that this issue.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Should be part of it or should fall along party
lines in the way that ultimately it has, at least
in terms of how our elected officials are responding and
how the media portrays this issue.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
But we need more truth speakers, truth.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Speakers, So that's what speaking on these college campuses, that's
the goal there.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Riley Gaines is going to be speaking at You See
Berkeley not far from the Radio Ranch tomorrow, that's April
the fourth, at six point thirty, as part of her
Reclaim Feminism campus tour. Was it you See Berkeley that
you ran into like violent opposition or like last year
was it?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, you're exactly right, almost exactly a year ago. It
was at San Francisco State University. I was met with vitriol,
I was met with violence, I was met with, of course, hatefulness.
And it's so comical, like you, like you mentioned in
the intro here, it would be comical. This is the
(07:26):
same crowd who claims to be tall and who claims
to be inclusive and welcoming and accepting. But that is
not what I faced at San Francisco, and oftentimes not
what I faced around the country. This is the least
tolerant group you could possibly imagine. But nonetheless, this is
who needs to hear the message. It's no good preaching
to the choir all the time. So I'm excited to
(07:47):
be in the Bay Area. I'm excited to be at
u C. Berkeley, and I'm I'm now, given my experience
last year in San Francisco, I am more than prepared
for what could possibly and most certainly probably will you.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Got the yeah, probably, will you got the proper security?
I mean, so you're you're prepared for it to be ugly?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Possibly, Yes, sir, Unfortunately that's the way it has to go.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, probably actual guys, like big guys with penises that
are going to protect you. Oh that kind of guy,
that kind of guy. That's the kind of guy I'm
talking about you.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And if anybody who's working your favorite one guy now
Riley is a good and decent and reasonable person. I
Joe Getty, on the other hand, have fully empowered anybody
working security for Riley's event to whoop as much ass
as you need to to keep her one hundred percent safety.
These people are lunatics. Riley. The point you made about,
(08:43):
you know, welcomeness and inclusion, that is such a lie.
It's like the whole diversity thing that doesn't mean diversity,
that means the people I want. The minute it's the
people I don't want. Suddenly diversity isn't important at all,
or welcomness or inclusion or whatever the hell else. So
we are going to have a link at Armstrong in
(09:03):
getty dot com so folks can access the Riley Gains Center,
particularly parents of young women, and not just athletes either.
I mean, because y'all are talking about not only sports
and locker rooms, but women's faces, women's prisons, and bathrooms
and that sort of thing as well.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Right, of course, of course we are.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
You're exactly right in saying an extends far beyond just
women's sports.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Riley Gaines, you're a hero of ours. We appreciate your
time and your efforts very much. Keep up the good
fight and let us know how we can help. We
mean that seriously, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Well, I thank you guys so much and appreciate you
for what you do.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
So thank you Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Andy
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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