We live in a world where we are supposed to celebrate men who put lipstick on and call themselves women. Doesn't make sense. I mean, how can a woman have a panis? How can men give birth when they're not wired that way? When God didn't make them that way. But we're told to just shut up and accept this clown world that we live in. You're a bigot if you speak out, you're transphobic. If you speak out, shut up. There's this intentional blurring of the lines between truth and lies, a distortion of the facts, intentionally a blurring of the lines between what's right and wrong. They want us to live in a chaotic world where anything goes and anything goes society, a society that allows evil to thrive in. I won't accept it. I refuse. That's not the world that I want to live in. That's not the world I want to raise kids in. That's not a world where that even allows for common sense to exist. And we need more people who will speak out. We need to celebrate people who are willing to speak out. And one of those people is Riley Gaines. She's a former University of Kentucky swimming star who was a twelve time All American and a five time SEC champion. It's pretty incredible. She had a swim against Leah Thomas, who's a man. How is that fair and how is it brave to celebrate a six foot one man competing against women in sports? Where's the bravery in that? And why hasn't the NCAA stood up for female athletes, where the older generation of women athletes standing up for the younger generation. Why does this twenty two year old have to do it. But we're fortunate to have Riley Gaines on this show because she is brave, she is courageous, and she is blazing a path for younger generations to live in a fair and just world with common sense. Stay tuned for Riley Gaines. Riley, I really appreciate you joining the show. I think you're tremendously brave, and you know, we need young people like you speaking out because we need to have younger generations influence and I think it's going to take young people to do it. So I really appreciate what you're doing, of course, and I totally agree with you, and just thank you for giving me the opportunity and the platform to continue speaking out. Are you ever just like, where are the older people? You know? Why do I, as a young person, have to take on this role? Absolutely? When I first initially started speaking out last year after our inc doable A Championships, I was truly looking for a coach to say something, or someone with political power, or someone within the NC double A. I thought it needed to come from them, until it kind of hit me that if we as female athletes aren't willing to stick up for ourselves, how can we expect someone else to stick up for us? And so I understand, I understand that it has to come from female athletes, but I think it's truly crazy. You know, I'm only twenty two years old, and I've been exposed and thrust it into this position where I never felt fully equipped for. I still don't feel fully equipped for. And so it is a bit mind boggling that one there's not more people my age speaking out in two the older generation, the generation that fought relentlessly for title nine, and of course the Me Too movement. Where are all these people? Where are the men the coaches? Who is taking precedent and acknowledging that the women's sporting category is at jeopardy? Here? Well, yeah, I mean, what's the point of women's sports now, right? I know, Well, it's interesting because there's so many obviously, there's so many organizations like the IOC, which is the Olympic Committee, and all these sports specific organizations that have all of these strict policies for doping and performance enhancing drugs. But now suddenly, when the trans issue is brought to light, they say testosterone has no effect on performance. But if that was the case, there would be no sporting categories. We would just have one big free for all and men compete against women and it would be relatively equal and how it panned out, but that's not what we would see. And we all know that if there was no sporting or specific categories. May I have three brother as, I have an older brother who used to beat me up, as most older brothers do, and I can tell you men have a competitive advantage, so I had to deal with that absolutely, you know, at the tower point, Riley, you know it's I mean, I do think it's important for younger generations like yourself to speak because I think you're going to have a better time influencing your peers and younger generations. But adults should also be there protecting people like you and standing up for you. And also the nca A, I feel like as an obligation to to stand up for its female athletes. But you know where have they been, Well, they've been the ones perpetrating all of this. They were the ones who explicitly subjected us to undressing in front of a naked male, to which these past couple of days, it's come out that the naked male that we were in dressing in front of really is just a part of the agpunity community, which is the autogenophiliac, which means you're sexually aroused from dressing as a woman. So the nc double A, rather than protecting us as females, they put us in that situation. It might I add, they never disclose to us, forewarned us that we would be in that situation. They told us, of course that we were competing against Thomas, but we had no idea, nor did we give them our consent to share a changing space with a biological man who I might add is fully impact with male genitalia. So obviously then he gets aroused by this and you're subjected to it. I mean, the way I look at it is you know that's a sexual harassment incident. Absolutely, and that's that's what you would think. But it's it's almost comical because now the Biden administration is actively trying to, of course, rewrite Title nine to where it is not well, I guess sex would now equate to gender identity. So under Biden's new Title nine rewrite, it would actually be sexual harassment if I missed gender Leah Thomas. But it is not sexual harassment. For Leah Thomas to show his body parts to us as we are undressing, that is not sexual harassment. But me using the pronouns heat him, now that that is so it's almost comical. Any sane person would hear that and laugh, like, is this really how far we've come as a country that this is what we're defining a sexual harassment. I mean, I can't imagine, you know, I've been in locker rooms, I played sports growing up. I can't imagine being in a locker room and then having a naked man staring at me and just the level of intrusiveness, the level of violation, embarrassment even of having to be subjected to that. Right, it's a subconscious I mean, it's in a you feel uncomfortable when you know a male gaze is in the room while you're undressing, like you immediately want to cover, which I want to add, a swimming locker room is not a place of modesty. Generally, these suits you put on, their skin tight. It takes about fifteen minutes to which you're fully exposed putting these suits on. And not to mention it's a distraction more than anything. We are supposed to be there, supposed to be on our a game, competing to the best of our ability. But let me tell you, it is so hard to not let that incident be a distraction, which of course inhibits your performance capabilities and how well you perform when you're not mentally all there. Swimming, of course, like most sports is, it's extremely mental. Of course there's a lot of physical that goes into it, but the mental toll it has on you is huge, and so it was a distraction well. And then of course the ironies. You mentioned the changes that Biden's trying to make. But then when he chose Kamala Harris as a VP, he one of the boxes he wanted to check as the fact that she's a woman. But if being a woman no longer matters, then what's the point. You know, It's like, we just live in such silly times, and you know, of course this doesn't make sense. No, I know, Well, the thing is, truthfully, I feel like it makes sense to ninety five percent of people, if not more. Which same person would truthfully say that men and women are athletically the same, No one, at least if they are. I can't comprehend that. But majority of the people, we know what's happening is wrong, and this translates far beyond sports, just this whole gender ideology propaganda, what's happening in elementary schools, what's happening within prison systems in the US. I mean, we know that this stuff is wrong, but people are terrified of being labeled as transphobic, which at first I understood when I first spoke out, I was scared of being called transphobic. But now I've realized that it doesn't make me hateful, it doesn't make me transphobic. It doesn't make me a bigot to understand and publicly say that there are two sexes, that you cannot change your sex, and that women deserve respect and opportunities, again in sports, but far beyond sports as well well. And how many times do you hear about a man entering women's sports and then all of a sudden, you know, they start breaking records when they were not able to do that among other women, Right, that doesn't You don't hear a lot of women entering men's sports and then they start breaking records where we saw that with Leah Thomas. No, you don't, And I think it's important to add last year at our instable A Championships, where we had, of course Leah Thomas, who is a male to female transitioner, at the same meat, we had a female transitioning to male who had reassignment surgery on the top, who had a double in sectomy, who went by heat him name was now Isaac, but of course was swimming with the women because this person would have never qualified for NC double as a as a male. So this proves that the women's category is what's at jeopardy, not the men's category. This said swimmer, who is now a trans man is competing with the men and went from being an All American phenomenal female swimmer to placing glass every time as a man. Actually the other day got second to last and be a man with one arm. So that's what we're looking at. There's so much talk of trans women competing with women, but hardly I mean crickets from trans men in the men's category. How did Leah Thomas do when he was swimming against other men? Leah the year before transitioning ranked four hundred and sixty second at best in the men's category. There's people who will say Leah was ranked six, Leah was this. First of all, I'm a swimmer, I know I know how to follow this stuff. That's not true. Leah might have placed six at a conference meet or at a duel meet, but Leah never even remotely qualified for NC double as as a male. This was not a lateral movement, which is why this conversation is necessary. Had this have been a lateral movement and we had science that could prove these hormone suppressors, which we know would never I mean, even with hormone suppression, there's certain advantages that would never be mitigated. But let's say in theory they could. This could be potentially a different conversation. But this is not a lateral movement. This isn't Leah ranking five hundreds, placing five hundreds in the women's category. This is Leah becoming the fastest woman in the entire country, beating out Olympians, American record holders, and some of the most impressive athletes, female athletes of really our time. What's frustrating about that? So? I played field hockey and lacrosse growing up. I almost played in college. I tore my acl as I was getting recruited, and it was kind of one of those situations where you know, all the D one schools, we're like, yeah, I don't call us, we'll call you. Okay, I got onofficial visits and stuff. But you know, it all happens how it's supposed to. But but the frustrating thing about this, especially in swimming, I mean there's a level of dedication and hard work. I mean you were busting your butt to get to the level that you did, working incredibly hard, and then to basically have this, you know, unfair competition. I can't imagine how demoralizing and frustrating that is after sacrificing so much to reach this level as you did. Right, And you're exactly right by saying there were sacrifices made. I swam like most swimmers at an elite level. I mean essentially all swimmers. It's impossible to find a swimmer who started swimming before or after the age of six. I mean, I started swimming at four and it was every day, which sounds crazy, but you dedicate your life to your sport. I missed out on proms, I missed out on vacations. Every summer at college, we were forced to be at school taking classes so we could train. I mean, there's so much you give up, which I'm so grateful for. I'm not sitting here winding about giving things up. I was more than willing to give these things up. But it's because I was dedicated to being the best that I could be. But when you have a biological man come in there and you have to race against each other, it just feels like you're starting the race with your hands behind your back. Like it's so just heartbreaking. I mean, of course, Title nine was created to protect women's sports and opportunities, and it just feels like this is regressive. And the left likes to look at this as it's progressive. We're moving forward, but this is taking us back fifty years in time. This is not progressive. It's actually quite the opposite you've had where I think you tied Leah Thomas and they gave the trophy to him on the podium because they wanted him to be in the photos with the trophy. And then you were nominated by the University of Kentucky as their nca Women of the Year. But so was he, even though he's not a woman. So it's like that that is just totally frustrating. Yes, it felt like especially in the instance of when we tied and they have one trophy and they give it to Thomas, and when I questioned him, he was like, well, Thomas has to have it for photo purposes. It just felt like we as female athletes, were reduced to a photo op to validate the identity of a man. And that's truthfully what pushed me over the edge into speaking out is when they told me Thomas had to have the trophy for picture purposes, it was like it all made sense to me, which of course it did before this. But what the NCAA was trying to do was save face. They're following the money, they're fall owing this loud minority because they don't want to get in trouble. They don't want to get sued they don't want to deal with backlash, but I made it my goal for them to have to deal with backlash when they put us through what they put us through. Did any Upen swimmers stand up and say this is wrong? Because of course he was nominated. He was picked to be their NCAA Women of the Year in competition there so did any Upen female swimmers step up? Not publicly, they did some stuff anonymously. They sent emails. I've talked with several of them over the course of these past couple of months. One of them has been kind of filling me in on all of the silencing methods that their university has used to ensure that they're quiet, which is heartbreaking because now not only is this an issue, of course, with the fairness in our sports, but this has become an issue with freedom of speech. And their schools made them go to mandatory LGBTQ meetings every week when they were concerned about the locker room piece, and they reached out to their their university, and I swear I have a screenshot of this. I can't believe it's even in writing, but their university said, if you feel uncomfortable seeing mel Genitalia. Here are some counseling resources that you should seek, and then they were referred, of course, the LGBTQ Education Center on campus to educate themselves. They were told that their school has already made their stance for them. They're told they're never they will never get into grad school, they will lose friends, they will never get a job if they speak out. One of Leah's teammates actually was sexually assaulted in high school. She was raped, and so she was dealing with all of this trauma. And when Leah came out and transitioned, she immediately sat with her coaches and said, Hey, like, this is what I'm dealing with. This is my past. This is really triggering to me and it causes me a lot of anxiety. Is there something we can do? And her coaches said, no, sorry, suck it up, which is just to me. I mean, I'm fortunate enough I've never had to go through anything like that necessarily, but I just can't imagine feeling so hopeless and no one who was there, who's there to protect you, doing anything to actually protect you. Quick commercial break more with Riley Gains on the other side. So obviously you're dealing with all this stuff behind the scenes. At what point were you just like, I need to speak out? You know? What was it? Why did you decide to speak out? You know? I, truthfully, like I said, I knew what was happening was wrong. I knew the competition was wrong. I knew the locker room situation was wrong. But it was when we were sidelined so Lenda could have the trophy That's when it occurred to me that someone has to do something. Because, like I said, I was truthfully looking for someone else to do it. I wanted some other swimmer to take a stand and I could kind of follow quietly behind them. But I started thinking of all of the warriors and trailblazers who fought for Title nine. I started thinking of one day I just got married. One day I hope to have daughters, and I started to think of their future. What if no one speaks up? What would that mean for my daughter's Sports has given me so much and so many skills, so many leadership skills, the confidence to continue doing what I'm doing and not care about the backlash. I want my daughters to have that opportunity of my sons. If I'm fortunate to have sons. I can't imagine them not having the same access and resources that I did. And that's what pushed me over the edge. And so I called my my athletic director at the University of Kentucky, and he's an amazing and amazing person and we have a good relationship, and so I called him and I said, Hey, this is what happened. These are my convictions. How do you feel about me taking a public stance And he said, speak your heart. I will support you in anything you do, which now I'm realizing God put me at the University of Kentucky. He put me in the position to where Leah Thomas and I tied because there's no other athletic director in the NC double A who's a supportive of their athletes and their true convictions as Mitch Barnhart was to me. So I'm so grateful for my university and my coaches. I never dealt. Dealt was silencing, which is one hundred percent an anomaly, you know, and then what's been you know, obviously you've had the support of the University of Kentucky, which is beautiful to hear that. You know, there's still places of sanity out there on all of this. What's been the public response? Like, you know, how has that been for you? You You know, at first, it was hard for me to handle all the negative comments, all the death threats, all of the comments about my appearance, and so many people telling me that this isn't what christ would do, You're not a Christian. That was hard for me to hear. But now, oh my gosh, the support is tenfold. I mean, there is so much more support, especially as people get more comfortable and more instances happen similar to the Leah Thomas one again in prisons, I mean just all over where women are essentially getting erased, people are becoming more vocal, and people are providing support, and it has been so so much more support than anything negative. And now I'm so secure with myself and I stand so firm that the negative comments go in one ear and out of the other. I know I'm not transphobic. I think that word is socially I'm not scared of trans people. I do think trans people should have rights. I think no one should be denied athletic opportunity, but we should all compete fairly. What makes one person's identity and mental health and feelings more valuable over a whole other groups, their mental health, what about their feelings? Of course, no one's asking that about us and us as female athletes, so but there's been so much more support than anything negative. Well, if you've noticed, you know, it's a tactic of the left to label people names. You know, for instance, you don't get the vaccine, you're an anti vaxx. You know, it's like there's always a label to try to, you know, put the societal shame on people that they want to shut up. And it's unfortunate, but to your point, you just have to know, you know what they're going to do this anyways, and I know what I'm doing is right. I've had so many conversations with my family, with my friends, lots of prayer, and I know my true heart, I know my true intentions and my true intentions or not to advance myself personally throughout this matter. But it's to make changes both at the state and federal levels. So this doesn't have to happen to any girl. Again, no girls should compare themselves to a man. Is that where you get your strength from through your faith? Definitely, it's a huge part of me and here recently, I feel like I don't know if I was just naive before, but I just feel like with everything happening in our society, I mean, look at what's happening, what happened at the Grammys where we have someone dressing up as Satan. I mean, I mean, I just feel like we live in this godless society, and I feel like that's kind of why we've taken this spiral down to which I think everyone can agree on. Look at what's happening. I mean, there's so many different assets that I'm not even just sports, this is far beyond that are just plummeting. And so I feel like we just live in this godless society where we've lost our morals, We've lost our sense of common sense, like our common sense, our understanding of truth and reality and logic and how that's crucial. We have people who deny truth till they're blue in the face, and it's really heartbreaking to see and to hear. I totally agree with you. I mean, I think there's been a total blurring of the lines of what's right and wrong and an intentional chaos that they're creating and defying of the truth intentionally, because a lot can thrive in chaos, right, It creates and anything goes society, and it seems like that's the whole intention of this, and also why they have such a problem with people like you standing up for what is right and standing up for what is true. There's no open dialogue anymore either, and I know you kind of touched on this. If someone doesn't agree with you, it's just labeled them as something. There's no conversation, which is what I wanted to engage. And I've reached out to CNN and left wing sites and media outlets numerous times to have me on because I want to spread the message to more than just conservatives, because I think this is something that matters and should matter to more than just conservatives. But they're unwilling to even have me on to talk about it, which is sad because I think this is something that we should conversation, that we should embrace with open open hearts, open minds. But that's of course not the way this and so many other issues are going. I do believe that bravery leads to other bravery, and I think you sort of setting a path and standing up will eventually lead to other people doing the same. So I deeply respect you. I'll give you myself if you ever want to talk. I'm here. I've worked in the media. See, you get used to being called things, so it's a sunfortunate but I sympathize and empathize with you. So Riley gay, and you're a heck of a woman. Very proud of you. Tons of respect. Thank you for doing what you're doing well. I appreciate that so so much, and I thank you for everything that you do. Truly, it's just inspiring. So thank you those Riley Gains speaking out on some of this transgender craziness that we live in, this crazy society that we live in, standing bravely for the truth. So she mentioned twenty two years old, very young to have that much wisdom and to have that much bravery and strength. So I appreciate her coming on the show. I want to thank you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I want to thank my producer, John Cassio for putting the show together. Leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts Until next time.

We live in a world where we are supposed to celebrate men who put lipstick on and call themselves women. Doesn't make sense. I mean, how can a woman have a panis? How can men give birth when they're not wired that way? When God didn't make them that way. But we're told to just shut up and accept this clown world that we live in. You're a bigot if you speak out, you're transphobic. If you speak out, shut up. There's this intentional blurring of the lines between truth and lies, a distortion of the facts, intentionally a blurring of the lines between what's right and wrong. They want us to live in a chaotic world where anything goes and anything goes society, a society that allows evil to thrive in. I won't accept it. I refuse. That's not the world that I want to live in. That's not the world I want to raise kids in. That's not a world where that even allows for common sense to exist. And we need more people who will speak out. We need to celebrate people who are willing to speak out. And one of those people is Riley Gaines. She's a former University of Kentucky swimming star who was a twelve time All American and a five time SEC champion. It's pretty incredible. She had a swim against Leah Thomas, who's a man. How is that fair and how is it brave to celebrate a six foot one man competing against women in sports? Where's the bravery in that? And why hasn't the NCAA stood up for female athletes, where the older generation of women athletes standing up for the younger generation. Why does this twenty two year old have to do it. But we're fortunate to have Riley Gaines on this show because she is brave, she is courageous, and she is blazing a path for younger generations to live in a fair and just world with common sense. Stay tuned for Riley Gaines. Riley, I really appreciate you joining the show. I think you're tremendously brave, and you know, we need young people like you speaking out because we need to have younger generations influence and I think it's going to take young people to do it. So I really appreciate what you're doing, of course, and I totally agree with you, and just thank you for giving me the opportunity and the platform to continue speaking out. Are you ever just like, where are the older people? You know? Why do I, as a young person, have to take on this role? Absolutely? When I first initially started speaking out last year after our inc doable A Championships, I was truly looking for a coach to say something, or someone with political power, or someone within the NC double A. I thought it needed to come from them, until it kind of hit me that if we as female athletes aren't willing to stick up for ourselves, how can we expect someone else to stick up for us? And so I understand, I understand that it has to come from female athletes, but I think it's truly crazy. You know, I'm only twenty two years old, and I've been exposed and thrust it into this position where I never felt fully equipped for. I still don't feel fully equipped for. And so it is a bit mind boggling that one there's not more people my age speaking out in two the older generation, the generation that fought relentlessly for title nine, and of course the Me Too movement. Where are all these people? Where are the men the coaches? Who is taking precedent and acknowledging that the women's sporting category is at jeopardy? Here? Well, yeah, I mean, what's the point of women's sports now, right? I know, Well, it's interesting because there's so many obviously, there's so many organizations like the IOC, which is the Olympic Committee, and all these sports specific organizations that have all of these strict policies for doping and performance enhancing drugs. But now suddenly, when the trans issue is brought to light, they say testosterone has no effect on performance. But if that was the case, there would be no sporting categories. We would just have one big free for all and men compete against women and it would be relatively equal and how it panned out, but that's not what we would see. And we all know that if there was no sporting or specific categories. May I have three brother as, I have an older brother who used to beat me up, as most older brothers do, and I can tell you men have a competitive advantage, so I had to deal with that absolutely, you know, at the tower point, Riley, you know it's I mean, I do think it's important for younger generations like yourself to speak because I think you're going to have a better time influencing your peers and younger generations. But adults should also be there protecting people like you and standing up for you. And also the nca A, I feel like as an obligation to to stand up for its female athletes. But you know where have they been, Well, they've been the ones perpetrating all of this. They were the ones who explicitly subjected us to undressing in front of a naked male, to which these past couple of days, it's come out that the naked male that we were in dressing in front of really is just a part of the agpunity community, which is the autogenophiliac, which means you're sexually aroused from dressing as a woman. So the nc double A, rather than protecting us as females, they put us in that situation. It might I add, they never disclose to us, forewarned us that we would be in that situation. They told us, of course that we were competing against Thomas, but we had no idea, nor did we give them our consent to share a changing space with a biological man who I might add is fully impact with male genitalia. So obviously then he gets aroused by this and you're subjected to it. I mean, the way I look at it is you know that's a sexual harassment incident. Absolutely, and that's that's what you would think. But it's it's almost comical because now the Biden administration is actively trying to, of course, rewrite Title nine to where it is not well, I guess sex would now equate to gender identity. So under Biden's new Title nine rewrite, it would actually be sexual harassment if I missed gender Leah Thomas. But it is not sexual harassment. For Leah Thomas to show his body parts to us as we are undressing, that is not sexual harassment. But me using the pronouns heat him, now that that is so it's almost comical. Any sane person would hear that and laugh, like, is this really how far we've come as a country that this is what we're defining a sexual harassment. I mean, I can't imagine, you know, I've been in locker rooms, I played sports growing up. I can't imagine being in a locker room and then having a naked man staring at me and just the level of intrusiveness, the level of violation, embarrassment even of having to be subjected to that. Right, it's a subconscious I mean, it's in a you feel uncomfortable when you know a male gaze is in the room while you're undressing, like you immediately want to cover, which I want to add, a swimming locker room is not a place of modesty. Generally, these suits you put on, their skin tight. It takes about fifteen minutes to which you're fully exposed putting these suits on. And not to mention it's a distraction more than anything. We are supposed to be there, supposed to be on our a game, competing to the best of our ability. But let me tell you, it is so hard to not let that incident be a distraction, which of course inhibits your performance capabilities and how well you perform when you're not mentally all there. Swimming, of course, like most sports is, it's extremely mental. Of course there's a lot of physical that goes into it, but the mental toll it has on you is huge, and so it was a distraction well. And then of course the ironies. You mentioned the changes that Biden's trying to make. But then when he chose Kamala Harris as a VP, he one of the boxes he wanted to check as the fact that she's a woman. But if being a woman no longer matters, then what's the point. You know, It's like, we just live in such silly times, and you know, of course this doesn't make sense. No, I know, Well, the thing is, truthfully, I feel like it makes sense to ninety five percent of people, if not more. Which same person would truthfully say that men and women are athletically the same, No one, at least if they are. I can't comprehend that. But majority of the people, we know what's happening is wrong, and this translates far beyond sports, just this whole gender ideology propaganda, what's happening in elementary schools, what's happening within prison systems in the US. I mean, we know that this stuff is wrong, but people are terrified of being labeled as transphobic, which at first I understood when I first spoke out, I was scared of being called transphobic. But now I've realized that it doesn't make me hateful, it doesn't make me transphobic. It doesn't make me a bigot to understand and publicly say that there are two sexes, that you cannot change your sex, and that women deserve respect and opportunities, again in sports, but far beyond sports as well well. And how many times do you hear about a man entering women's sports and then all of a sudden, you know, they start breaking records when they were not able to do that among other women, Right, that doesn't You don't hear a lot of women entering men's sports and then they start breaking records where we saw that with Leah Thomas. No, you don't, And I think it's important to add last year at our instable A Championships, where we had, of course Leah Thomas, who is a male to female transitioner, at the same meat, we had a female transitioning to male who had reassignment surgery on the top, who had a double in sectomy, who went by heat him name was now Isaac, but of course was swimming with the women because this person would have never qualified for NC double as a as a male. So this proves that the women's category is what's at jeopardy, not the men's category. This said swimmer, who is now a trans man is competing with the men and went from being an All American phenomenal female swimmer to placing glass every time as a man. Actually the other day got second to last and be a man with one arm. So that's what we're looking at. There's so much talk of trans women competing with women, but hardly I mean crickets from trans men in the men's category. How did Leah Thomas do when he was swimming against other men? Leah the year before transitioning ranked four hundred and sixty second at best in the men's category. There's people who will say Leah was ranked six, Leah was this. First of all, I'm a swimmer, I know I know how to follow this stuff. That's not true. Leah might have placed six at a conference meet or at a duel meet, but Leah never even remotely qualified for NC double as as a male. This was not a lateral movement, which is why this conversation is necessary. Had this have been a lateral movement and we had science that could prove these hormone suppressors, which we know would never I mean, even with hormone suppression, there's certain advantages that would never be mitigated. But let's say in theory they could. This could be potentially a different conversation. But this is not a lateral movement. This isn't Leah ranking five hundreds, placing five hundreds in the women's category. This is Leah becoming the fastest woman in the entire country, beating out Olympians, American record holders, and some of the most impressive athletes, female athletes of really our time. What's frustrating about that? So? I played field hockey and lacrosse growing up. I almost played in college. I tore my acl as I was getting recruited, and it was kind of one of those situations where you know, all the D one schools, we're like, yeah, I don't call us, we'll call you. Okay, I got onofficial visits and stuff. But you know, it all happens how it's supposed to. But but the frustrating thing about this, especially in swimming, I mean there's a level of dedication and hard work. I mean you were busting your butt to get to the level that you did, working incredibly hard, and then to basically have this, you know, unfair competition. I can't imagine how demoralizing and frustrating that is after sacrificing so much to reach this level as you did. Right, And you're exactly right by saying there were sacrifices made. I swam like most swimmers at an elite level. I mean essentially all swimmers. It's impossible to find a swimmer who started swimming before or after the age of six. I mean, I started swimming at four and it was every day, which sounds crazy, but you dedicate your life to your sport. I missed out on proms, I missed out on vacations. Every summer at college, we were forced to be at school taking classes so we could train. I mean, there's so much you give up, which I'm so grateful for. I'm not sitting here winding about giving things up. I was more than willing to give these things up. But it's because I was dedicated to being the best that I could be. But when you have a biological man come in there and you have to race against each other, it just feels like you're starting the race with your hands behind your back. Like it's so just heartbreaking. I mean, of course, Title nine was created to protect women's sports and opportunities, and it just feels like this is regressive. And the left likes to look at this as it's progressive. We're moving forward, but this is taking us back fifty years in time. This is not progressive. It's actually quite the opposite you've had where I think you tied Leah Thomas and they gave the trophy to him on the podium because they wanted him to be in the photos with the trophy. And then you were nominated by the University of Kentucky as their nca Women of the Year. But so was he, even though he's not a woman. So it's like that that is just totally frustrating. Yes, it felt like especially in the instance of when we tied and they have one trophy and they give it to Thomas, and when I questioned him, he was like, well, Thomas has to have it for photo purposes. It just felt like we as female athletes, were reduced to a photo op to validate the identity of a man. And that's truthfully what pushed me over the edge into speaking out is when they told me Thomas had to have the trophy for picture purposes, it was like it all made sense to me, which of course it did before this. But what the NCAA was trying to do was save face. They're following the money, they're fall owing this loud minority because they don't want to get in trouble. They don't want to get sued they don't want to deal with backlash, but I made it my goal for them to have to deal with backlash when they put us through what they put us through. Did any Upen swimmers stand up and say this is wrong? Because of course he was nominated. He was picked to be their NCAA Women of the Year in competition there so did any Upen female swimmers step up? Not publicly, they did some stuff anonymously. They sent emails. I've talked with several of them over the course of these past couple of months. One of them has been kind of filling me in on all of the silencing methods that their university has used to ensure that they're quiet, which is heartbreaking because now not only is this an issue, of course, with the fairness in our sports, but this has become an issue with freedom of speech. And their schools made them go to mandatory LGBTQ meetings every week when they were concerned about the locker room piece, and they reached out to their their university, and I swear I have a screenshot of this. I can't believe it's even in writing, but their university said, if you feel uncomfortable seeing mel Genitalia. Here are some counseling resources that you should seek, and then they were referred, of course, the LGBTQ Education Center on campus to educate themselves. They were told that their school has already made their stance for them. They're told they're never they will never get into grad school, they will lose friends, they will never get a job if they speak out. One of Leah's teammates actually was sexually assaulted in high school. She was raped, and so she was dealing with all of this trauma. And when Leah came out and transitioned, she immediately sat with her coaches and said, Hey, like, this is what I'm dealing with. This is my past. This is really triggering to me and it causes me a lot of anxiety. Is there something we can do? And her coaches said, no, sorry, suck it up, which is just to me. I mean, I'm fortunate enough I've never had to go through anything like that necessarily, but I just can't imagine feeling so hopeless and no one who was there, who's there to protect you, doing anything to actually protect you. Quick commercial break more with Riley Gains on the other side. So obviously you're dealing with all this stuff behind the scenes. At what point were you just like, I need to speak out? You know? What was it? Why did you decide to speak out? You know? I, truthfully, like I said, I knew what was happening was wrong. I knew the competition was wrong. I knew the locker room situation was wrong. But it was when we were sidelined so Lenda could have the trophy That's when it occurred to me that someone has to do something. Because, like I said, I was truthfully looking for someone else to do it. I wanted some other swimmer to take a stand and I could kind of follow quietly behind them. But I started thinking of all of the warriors and trailblazers who fought for Title nine. I started thinking of one day I just got married. One day I hope to have daughters, and I started to think of their future. What if no one speaks up? What would that mean for my daughter's Sports has given me so much and so many skills, so many leadership skills, the confidence to continue doing what I'm doing and not care about the backlash. I want my daughters to have that opportunity of my sons. If I'm fortunate to have sons. I can't imagine them not having the same access and resources that I did. And that's what pushed me over the edge. And so I called my my athletic director at the University of Kentucky, and he's an amazing and amazing person and we have a good relationship, and so I called him and I said, Hey, this is what happened. These are my convictions. How do you feel about me taking a public stance And he said, speak your heart. I will support you in anything you do, which now I'm realizing God put me at the University of Kentucky. He put me in the position to where Leah Thomas and I tied because there's no other athletic director in the NC double A who's a supportive of their athletes and their true convictions as Mitch Barnhart was to me. So I'm so grateful for my university and my coaches. I never dealt. Dealt was silencing, which is one hundred percent an anomaly, you know, and then what's been you know, obviously you've had the support of the University of Kentucky, which is beautiful to hear that. You know, there's still places of sanity out there on all of this. What's been the public response? Like, you know, how has that been for you? You You know, at first, it was hard for me to handle all the negative comments, all the death threats, all of the comments about my appearance, and so many people telling me that this isn't what christ would do, You're not a Christian. That was hard for me to hear. But now, oh my gosh, the support is tenfold. I mean, there is so much more support, especially as people get more comfortable and more instances happen similar to the Leah Thomas one again in prisons, I mean just all over where women are essentially getting erased, people are becoming more vocal, and people are providing support, and it has been so so much more support than anything negative. And now I'm so secure with myself and I stand so firm that the negative comments go in one ear and out of the other. I know I'm not transphobic. I think that word is socially I'm not scared of trans people. I do think trans people should have rights. I think no one should be denied athletic opportunity, but we should all compete fairly. What makes one person's identity and mental health and feelings more valuable over a whole other groups, their mental health, what about their feelings? Of course, no one's asking that about us and us as female athletes, so but there's been so much more support than anything negative. Well, if you've noticed, you know, it's a tactic of the left to label people names. You know, for instance, you don't get the vaccine, you're an anti vaxx. You know, it's like there's always a label to try to, you know, put the societal shame on people that they want to shut up. And it's unfortunate, but to your point, you just have to know, you know what they're going to do this anyways, and I know what I'm doing is right. I've had so many conversations with my family, with my friends, lots of prayer, and I know my true heart, I know my true intentions and my true intentions or not to advance myself personally throughout this matter. But it's to make changes both at the state and federal levels. So this doesn't have to happen to any girl. Again, no girls should compare themselves to a man. Is that where you get your strength from through your faith? Definitely, it's a huge part of me and here recently, I feel like I don't know if I was just naive before, but I just feel like with everything happening in our society, I mean, look at what's happening, what happened at the Grammys where we have someone dressing up as Satan. I mean, I mean, I just feel like we live in this godless society, and I feel like that's kind of why we've taken this spiral down to which I think everyone can agree on. Look at what's happening. I mean, there's so many different assets that I'm not even just sports, this is far beyond that are just plummeting. And so I feel like we just live in this godless society where we've lost our morals, We've lost our sense of common sense, like our common sense, our understanding of truth and reality and logic and how that's crucial. We have people who deny truth till they're blue in the face, and it's really heartbreaking to see and to hear. I totally agree with you. I mean, I think there's been a total blurring of the lines of what's right and wrong and an intentional chaos that they're creating and defying of the truth intentionally, because a lot can thrive in chaos, right, It creates and anything goes society, and it seems like that's the whole intention of this, and also why they have such a problem with people like you standing up for what is right and standing up for what is true. There's no open dialogue anymore either, and I know you kind of touched on this. If someone doesn't agree with you, it's just labeled them as something. There's no conversation, which is what I wanted to engage. And I've reached out to CNN and left wing sites and media outlets numerous times to have me on because I want to spread the message to more than just conservatives, because I think this is something that matters and should matter to more than just conservatives. But they're unwilling to even have me on to talk about it, which is sad because I think this is something that we should conversation, that we should embrace with open open hearts, open minds. But that's of course not the way this and so many other issues are going. I do believe that bravery leads to other bravery, and I think you sort of setting a path and standing up will eventually lead to other people doing the same. So I deeply respect you. I'll give you myself if you ever want to talk. I'm here. I've worked in the media. See, you get used to being called things, so it's a sunfortunate but I sympathize and empathize with you. So Riley gay, and you're a heck of a woman. Very proud of you. Tons of respect. Thank you for doing what you're doing well. I appreciate that so so much, and I thank you for everything that you do. Truly, it's just inspiring. So thank you those Riley Gains speaking out on some of this transgender craziness that we live in, this crazy society that we live in, standing bravely for the truth. So she mentioned twenty two years old, very young to have that much wisdom and to have that much bravery and strength. So I appreciate her coming on the show. I want to thank you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I want to thank my producer, John Cassio for putting the show together. Leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts Until next time.